Rains disrupt BMC Francistown abattoir

Chakalisa Dube | Thursday March 20, 2014 12:21

 “We usually slaughter 3,000 cattle during the months of January and February every year because it is not our peak period. We started production this year in February but we only managed to slaughter 900 cattle,” Saudu said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He said heavy rains last month prevented farmers from bringing their cattle for slaughter. The farmers are usually less enthusiastic about bringing their cattle for slaughter when there are good rains. “When there are good rains, farmers usually resort to leaving cattle to improve their quality as there are plenty of pasture before they can sell,” he explained.

Saudu said the monthly cattle target for BMC during peak periods of April-December is 8,000. During the meeting he stated that BMC has increased its supply campaign and hiked prices in a bid to attract more cattle for slaughter.

“As part of our efforts to improve cattle supply, we will also be assisting farmers with transport to bring their cattle to the BMC,” he said.  In 2013, the Francistown abattoir produced nine million tonnes of beef and related products. The bulk of the produce was sold to South Africa (seven million tonnes). The local market got 1.7 million tones while the rest went to Zimbabwe, Malawi and Tanzania. Since 2012, the Francistown BMC has been selling beef in the African market after failing to meet EU requirements. “In our 2014 strategy, we plan to further develop these African markets to reduce reliance on the South African market,” Saudu said.

The BMC sold 337 live cattle to Zimbabwe’s Cold Storage Company.

“Live trade is another avenue that we want to develop further for BMC Francistown to assist farmers in Zone 7 and Zone 3b who cannot sell their cattle directly,” he said.

Though Saudu did not provide figures in monetary terms, he said the BMC did not make profits last year. “By the end of July last year, even though we had started the year very slowly, we had managed to slaughter 93 percent of the cattle we had budgeted for that period and more importantly we were doing it efficiently and profitably since we were within range for cost per head and cost per kg,” he explained.

He said they closed the abattoir in October due to low numbers.

“We only managed to slaughter 38,000 of the 60,000 cattle we had budgeted for last year,” he explained. He said the profits earned in 2013 were used to cover maintenance costs at the plant while it was idle from October until it began operations last month. “We have managed to rectify all the issues that led to our disqualification from the EU. We are hopeful that the Department of Veterinary Services(DVS) and the EU will soon visit the plant to carry out inspections with regards to our ability to sell to the EU,” he said.