21 Oct 2024

The government will retain Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) Maun abattoir in an endeavour to promote the interests of the livestock producing industry. 

This was said by Botswana Meat Commission chief executive officer, Mr David Tsheboeng during a kgotla meeting in Maun on Friday.

While he appreciated that the abattoir was faced with numerous challenges, he noted that efforts were underway to improve efficiency and ensure farmers get value for money.

He said the abbatoir was on the verge of closing in 2010 and government supported it with a subvention to allow for its smooth running. “We admit that we have shortfalls that need to be resolved and currently, we have paid P20 million to Ngamiland farmers who sold their animals from January this year up to September despite the challenges ,” he said.

Mr Tsheboeng appealed to farmers to continue supporting BMC with livestock, to ensure the plant performed efficiently. 

He also shared some developments made to entice farmers and restore their confidence in the abattoir citing increased prices and free transportation of animals from the quarantines to the abattoir saying that was an indication that they wanted farmers to reap the economic benefits of their animals.

With such developments, he said BMC still remained competitive as there was no where farmers could enjoy such benefits of free transportation and better buying prices. “We are also making efforts to secure more lucrative markets in some countries,” he said.

Also, he said countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo had shown interest in buying meat from Ngamiland region, adding that they were also exploring local markets.

For his part, Minister of Entrepreneurship, Mr Karabo Gare said government was aware that the Maun abattoir was marred with challenges and her intention was to support Ngamiland region like other regions.

He said the region had to be aided when necessary to ensure that it attained desirous socio-economic growth through the dispensary of varied entrepreneurial services. 

Mr Gare said government was creating sustainable value through livestock farming including new programmes or value-creating interventions such as Thuo Letlotlo and Maja A Ikgorosa.

“I wish to therefore discourage any thoughts and misinformation being peddled that as government, we are discriminating against the Ngamiland and any other non-green zone regions from accessing Maja-A-Ikgorosa. 

We are working on the solutions, but these are not going to be achieved all at once, or immediately. 

There are steps and consultations, which include consulting other countries and target-market regions,” he added.

Earlier, some residents called on government to declare some zones which had never experienced Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak as green zone and also to improve the turnaround times for payment of farmers supplying the abattoir with animals. ENDs