20 Nov 2024

Minister for International Relations says through economic diplomacy, government is ready to facilitate investors.

Dr Butale said in an interview following a tour of Pro Dairy in Harare, Zimbabwe on Wednesday that it was important to do away with bottlenecks and any other delays that were a hindrance to investors in the country.

On his impression following the tour of the project, he said it was important to facilitate the establishment of a dairy business in Botswana, taking into account all the necessary measures.

He said Botswana had a choice of importing dairy cattle to start its own production of dairy products or continue importing large volumes of milk, which was coming at a high cost and stretching the importation bill.

Thus, he said government would not hesitate to made decisions that would benefit the nation.

According to Dr Butale, a recent report from Statistics Botswana had revealed that of the total P8.6 billion spent on imports, P1.7 billion was on dairy products.

He further revealed that government was focused on facilitating Pro Daily to establish business in Botswana.

Dr Butale said the only way to create jobs was to industrialise and therefore establishing such a factory would be a welcome development.

“We will work around the clock and come up with measures of making sure that we deliver,” he added.

He also added that the government was aware of the import ban on live cattle from countries like Zimbabwe, as they were prone to Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks.

However, he said it was also important to note that dairy cattle were confined to one location, therefore the risk of them mixing with other cattle was close to none, therefore the anticipated fear was manageable.

For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of Rutanhi Beverages Limited, Mr Calum Philp, said Pro Dairy, a dairy product company under their group, was ready to start a their operation in Botswana.

“We have incorporated Rutanhi Beverages Botswana and is currently with the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) and waiting for the IFSC accreditation.

It should be out any time now. We are doing our due diligence now.

There are no delays on our side,” he said.

“We now have too many animals and we will have enough dairy cattle to take to Botswana to start the dairy business.

We are ready to take 1 000 dairy breed cattle that are from good commercial production units to Botswana and that one decision will double Botswana’s milk production,” he added.

Mr Philp said the dairy production company was ready and that with the 1 000 cows it would be able to produce 600 000 litres of milk per month or seven million litres per year

He said the essence was not all about producing milk but also about adding value by creating jobs.

He said every 12 000 litres of milk production per month would translate to one job.

Mr Philp said Botswana was currently importing nearly 50 million liters of milk per year, which translated to 400 jobs being created in other countries.

He added that establishing their business in the country would not only cut the import expenditure but would also provide the much needed products and create employment.

He said based on milk consumption statistics in 2023, Zimbabwe consumed 91 million litres of milk, South Africa 420 million and Botswana 62 million litres.

He said the consumption of milk per person was 25.2 litres in Botswana, seven litres in South Africa and 5.6 litres in Zimbabwe.

Thus, he said their company would do well in Botswana as more people consumed milk in the country.

He said there was a tremendous amount of value that the company would add in the country.

He said Botswana had an opportunity to do business as among others it had a stable democracy, strong currency and not affected by unprecedented power cuts.

“Your advantage is that you are more competitive as you do not have such challenges in the region,” he said. Ends