No plans to increase Maun abattoir capacity—Gare
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Tuesday November 21, 2023 06:00
He told Parliament recently that between 2022 and the year to date, the Maun abattoir has shown an improvement both in throughput and turnover. “At 14,992, the throughput reflects a 64% increase on the 9,120 which was slaughtered in 2022.
The increase in throughput is partly due to volumes from the Zone 6B depopulation project which contributed 7,000 of the almost 15,000 cattle slaughtered [in the] year to date, a bulk of these volumes came in between March and July 2023,” Gare said.
He indicated that the abattoir’s projected turnover is P58.3 million compared to P38.6 million realised in 2022, representing over a 50% increase. However, the minister said despite this strong performance, there is no urgent need for the plant’s capacity to be increased from its current capacity of 120 cattle per day. “It is worth noting that at this capacity, the plant can process 24,000 cattle per annum, which the plant has never reached since its expansion which was financed for P14 million in 2016.
At the best plant utilisation averages 50% to 60%, and as such has excess capacity,” he explained. Furthermore, Gare explained that the Maun abattoir and the BMC as a whole are important to the mandate of his ministry so far as empowering Batswana and implementing the Economic Inclusion Act of 2021 are concerned. Additionally, he said the Maun abattoir is a very strategic and critical asset to the country’s beef production sub-sector and agricultural economy in general.
Meanwhile, the minister said efforts are underway to improve the payment turnaround of farmers. He said the ministry is currently engaging with commercial banks to explore the possibility of developing an instrument that could be used to finance the procurement of cattle from the Ngamiland area to align the turnaround time to what is achieved at Lobatse.
Gare said this when responding to a question asked by Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi South, Sam Brooks. The legislator had asked the minister to inform the House of the operational performance of the Maun abattoir between 2022 and the year to date; its critical relevance to the ministry’s value chain development agenda; given that its capacity was reviewed in 2016 from 90 cattle per day to 120 cattle per day, are they any plans to increase the current capacity to meet the catchment area’s growing demand, and what plans are there to improve the payment turnaround of farmers in Ngamiland.