07 Jul 2021

Management of Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) abattoir in Maun has been advised to come up with interventions to help sustain the abattoir and improve the beef industry in Ngamiland.

The Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Ms Beauty Manake, made the appeal after touring the plant on Tuesday. 

She said the entity remained a viable business that needed a slight improvement to make it more efficient.

Management, she said, could come up with interventions such as the quarantine system, which delayed selling and slaughtering of cattle.

She said government was still looking at options on how best to support the abattoir, adding that the management and stakeholders in the beef industry should explore other opportunities to for the abattoir to become more competitive. 

Maun BMC, Ms Manake said, still enjoyed subvention from the government because of disease outbreaks such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Ngamiland. 

She urged the private sector, financiers and other stakeholders to be part of the project to benefit farmers.

She suggested that stakeholders could come up with a business model to ensure that the abattoir served its purpose, which was to slaughter cattle to produce quality meat and value added products for global markets.

Supporting the abattoir, Ms Manake said, would lead to growing the business and achieve  desired results.

“The plant is amazing as it produces quality products and I believe it can also run a stewed beef cannery,” she said, adding that stewed beef cannery could be a lucrative business that could grow the industry and reduce BMC ‘s dependence on government financing.

The abattoir, she said, could also supply schools and export surplus, adding that she was also impressed that it produced carcass meal, which could be used to manufacture pet food, worth billions in other countries. 

BMC Maun branch manager,  Mr Oabona Ramotshwara explained that the abattoir was designed to slaughter 25 000 animals a year, but had only slaughtered 2 800 cattle since January. 

He said they experienced a serious decline of animals since 2017, because of two consecutive FMD outbreaks in the district as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also highlighted that since the abattoir started slaughtering animals from quarantine in 2018, the uptake was slow, adding that the target was between 8000- 9000 this year, but so far, they managed only 1800 animals.

Mr Ramotshwara revealed that they also got animals from private quarantine camps and the green zone areas of Gweta/Nata and Rakops and he was hopeful that they would reach their target by end of the year. 

He said BMC had also improved payment turnaround and farmers were motivated to bring animals to the quarantine. 

He said so far they had paid P8.9 million and were left with P3.4 million of arrears. Ends