19 Mar 2023

Botswana is a free market economy, hence there is no standardised price for cattle, goats, sheep and other livestock.

This was said by Minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao in Parliament recently.

“The local market is determined by economic forces of supply and demand. The ministry does not have any instrument to regulate and set a standard price for the sale of cattle,” Mr Molao said.

He said farmers were at liberty to set their open livestock selling prices, adding that prices fluctuated based on the willingness of consumers to meet the set prices.

Also, Mr Molao said there was no intention to regulate beef or meat prices because of the country’s free market economy status. Nonetheless, he said government had approved the establishment of the Meat Industry Regulator Authority (MIRA), to promote the interest of the meet industry in order to ensure profitability, sustainability and competiveness of the livestock and meat industry, not to regulate prices.

He said MIRA would perform its mandate through accelerating innovation and research and development across the industry value chain.

Serowe South legislator, Mr Leepetswe Lesedi had wanted to know why there were no standardised prices for the sale of livestock, especially cattle.

Mr Lesedi had also wanted to know interventions by the ministry to regulate and set a standard price for the sale of cattle because in some regions they were sold higher than their value, whereas in other part of the country they were sold at a lower price. ends