30 Aug 2023

Ngamiland farmers should explore other beef markets in the SADC region instead of eyeing only the lucrative European Union (EU) market.

The call was made by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) Representative for Southern Africa, Dr Moetapele Letshwenyo, when responding to concerns from farmers during a seminar on demonstration of Commodity Based Trade (CBT) implementation in Botswana for the benefit of people and nature.

Farmers decried lack of access to lucrative markets and that their beef was sold at lower prices compared to beef from other zones. They blamed the zoning system, saying it had disadvantaged them to benefit from lucrative markets.

They called on authorities to consider declaring some areas which stayed long without Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks as green zones.

However, Dr Letshwenyo appreciated that EU had been a lucrative market for the country for years.

However, he explained that CBT approaches focused more on the safety of the beef production processes and beef itself rather than on the animal disease situation.

The CBT approach, he said, was scientifically sound and effective and also compatible with modern animal production and trade standards set by WOAH.

“SADC is a major importer of beef because there is a high demand and all you have to do is to build a story first before moving your product outside. Countries live Democratic of Congo, Angola and Zambia have huge beef markets,” said Dr Letshwenyo.

Dr Letshwenyo said farmers had a political support on CBT, noting that WOAH was trying to guide and make people understand FMD control measures and CBT better.

A lot of countries, he said, saw FMD as an exotic disease hence EU could not accept meat from CBT but stated that CBT was the way to go to mitigate FMD.

WOAH, he said, worked closely with the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) to guide on how disease control was done because they did not want countries to eradicate the disease in a certain way.

Dr Letshwenyo said they always push DVS upfront to interpret standards and guidance to farmers and “we are happy that the department has made progress as it was possible with new standards to trade beef from red zone in green zone,” he added.

He also appreciated the quarantine system, saying it was a welcome innovation aimed to separate cattle from buffaloes, something he said was a challenge in the past. The system, he said, could take the farmers to greater heights.

Implementing CBT in an integrated way includes improved husbandry and rangeland management practices. He also said it would help make cattle production more sustainable and environmentally friendly and eventually marketing quality beef.

However, Dr Letshwenyo emphasized the need to brand Maun beef, saying that could also help in securing better markets. Maun beef was the best as it was grass-fed as compared to beef from the green zone.

WOAH is an inter-governmental organization responsible for setting scientific standards on animal health, welfare and veterinary public health as well as for diseases that are transmittable between animals and human beings, he said.

Executive Manager Livestock Procurement at Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Mr Kenneth Makubate, concurred that there was a huge market in the region and also emphasised the need to brand Maun beef, saying that could help to delete the negative perceptions that the meat was from a red zone.

Mr Makubate said BMC could brand but urged stakeholders to aggressively brand the product so that farmers could benefit better.

Maun beef, he said, was of good quality and safe for consumption, adding that it was bought by chain shops in Gaborone.

He also stressed the need to dig deeper to find what quality was needed by the tourism operators in the Okavango Delta.

He said there was no need for farmers to constantly run after EU markets while they could explore other available markets. ENDS