27 Jun 2024

Beef producers have been urged to feed and prepare their cattle to meet the European Union (EU) market standards.

Speaking at the Nata/Gweta Block Beef Producers Field Day recently,    Procurement Executive Manager at Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) Mr Kenneth Makubate said Botswana, compared to neighbouring countries also exporting beef to EU markets, paid the best price at a rate of P45 per kilogramme.

That, Mr Makubate said was despite some challenges the BMC was faced with to get cattle of good quality meat required by the EU protocols.

“Across all the operational BMC abattoirs we experience shortage of supply of cattle from farmers. In Lobatse we need at least 600 heads per day while in Maun we require 120 which translates to 600 cattle in a week but we only receive less than half in a week which therefore means we are not reaching target needed to export,” he said.

He decried that some cattle did not the meet the EU standards and that led to BMC having surplus of poor quality meat stockpiled at their storages.

He, therefore, urged farmers to take advantage of government programmes such as Thuo Letlotlo and subsidies to improve their breeds and upgrade quality of their livestock so that they could supply BMC with value meat.

He encouraged those wishing to sell for local supply to take their cattle to Maun abattoirs where they bought meat at P31 per kg.

He indicated that they assisted farmers with transport to collect cattle at specified points within reach in their respective areas.

He, however urged farmers to work on improving the quality of their cattle in order to get good returns on their investment.

Last year, he said a farmer who sold about 20 cattle, got P30 750 for one beast and also sold some at the lowest price of about P20 000.

“This should be an inspiration to other farmers for them to get good returns for their investment,” he said.Mr Makubate was happy that BMC continued to address challenges of late payments to farmers.

Earlier, Kgosi Modiro Thomas implored government to assist farmers to find lucrative markets for their cattle.

He said local buyers, including BMC, did not offer good profits for their cattle which they had worked hard to keep and feed, particularly in the midst of the severe drought.

“This year we have not received good rains and it is important to sell some of our livestock to get money we use to buy stock feed for the remaining cattle. This is a difficult year for both people and animals,” he said. Ends