Underutilised Francistown abattoir bleeds losses
Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday November 5, 2015 16:01
“Data from Statistics Botswana show that the region had 223,701 cattle from a total of 2.08 million cattle in the country of which only about 14,500 (6.5 percent) was sold to the BMC Francistown abattoir in 2013,” said Tombale.
Further, he said data from Statistics Botswana shows that cattle population in the whole country has reduced by 7.1 percent due to a national decline in birth rate at 50.6%, an increase of mortality rate to 12.6% and recurrence of Foot and Mouth (FMD) and other ailments.
“In 2013, the Francistown abattoir slaughtered 38,033 cattle. If the abattoir had been operating at its full capacity of slaughtering 400 cattle a day then it only needed to open for 95.1 days (three months) for the whole year. It is therefore not surprising that the plant incurred a P9.7 million loss,” said Tombale. The situation, he said, got even worse in 2014 where the annual slaughter figure achieved for the plant was only 27,681 cattle -signalling the abattoir ought to have only opened for 65 days in a year, hence the losses shot to P44 million that year, which were largely necessitated by a spread of these days across the year to keep the plant open for business.
“It is clear that the abattoir’s capacity does not correspond with the cattle-supply/population in this area and has become more cancerous to the entire operations of the BMC and possibly to the sector,” said Tombale.
Tombale stated he is alive to the fact that there are many issues that “we must all apply ourselves to regarding cattle supply concerns to the Francistown plant, most of which are inefficiencies of the sector as a whole as well as updates of the market standards and requirements.”
Tombale said despite the Francistown abattoir not operating at optimal and profitable levels, the BMC leadership has ensured that the plant stays ISO 9001 certified and have also ensured that it improves its McDonalds audit rating from 87% in 2014 to 89% in 2015. The CEO expressed concern that after negotiating with the Ministry of Agriculture to permit livestock movement from Hainaveldt to the BMC Francistown in order to improve the throughput, they were shocked by some people who allowed an area, which was cleared of FMD since 1986 to easily slip into a questionable state.
The Chairperson of Tati Farmers Association and executive committee member of Botswana National Beef Producers Union (BNBPU), Andrew Seeletso advised farmers to keep cattle that they could afford to feed especially during the tough drought period and sell some to the BMC in Francistown.