04 Apr 2024

The upgrading of cannery at Botswana Meat Commission (BMC)-Lobatse plant will bring value addition and improve revenue for the organization, (BMC) executive manager for the livestock procurement, Mr Kenneth Makubate, has said.

Mr Makubate said in an interview following a closed meeting organised by BMC in Maun Wednesday to touch base with North West farmers’ associations’ leadership and update them on new developments, issues of new markets and to discuss matters of concern among others.

He said government had supported BMC to come up with upgrading of the cannery, a move he acknowledged as a welcome development because the organisation would now reap benefits of value addition associated with their products.

The move, he said, would also bring valued addition in terms of better returns which would in turn benefit farmers as their mandate was to promote the development of the country’s beef and related products globally.

“That means when we make profit, it should be planted back into the community and with value addition everybody believes that it will bring better revenue as a lot of our products will be in shelves. Even our payment turnaround time for farmers will improve going forward,” he said.

Mr Makubate said farmers had also requested the organization to revise its approach in terms of buying cattle and bring up a model of buying live cattle to reduce the quarantine period.

He said farmers had expressed interest to supply more cattle to BMC to minimise losses due to drought.  They also complained about the long period animals spent at quarantines, he said.

He said farmers called on management to secure more new markets and also look into the buying price citing that local competitors have increased the buying prices.

However, Mr Makubate said farmers concerns would be taken up with the board and feedback would be given. “We had a fruitful meeting and we have made schedule of meetings so that we meet regularly to discuss issues of concern,” he added.

Mr Frank Mafela, a farmer,  thanked BMC for engaging them to discuss issues of concern and come up with lasting solutions. 

Mr Mafela also appreciated that management was also looking for better ways to make BMC more efficient so that farmers could have confidence to sell their cattle to the abattoir.

“We are ready to supply more cattle to protect them from severe drought that we are experiencing in the region,” he said. “Even though the process at the quarantine is long, we have to comply with the system because it helps to control animal diseases.”  Ends