FMD threat: Lobatse grinds to a halt
Tumelo Mouwane | Friday April 15, 2016 12:14
Butcheries here are running on empty. Many have resorted to selling chicken. Some have given up and placed their fate in the hands of those at the centre of the issue.
In the space of a week, the country’s oldest town, whose economy relies heavily on the beef ranches surrounding it, is looking down the barrel of a gun. With the suspension of cattle movements and beef exports due to the encroachment of buffalo elsewhere in Zone 11, Lobatse’s beef industry has been frozen.
Yesterday, a manager at Lobatse Meat Lovers butchery, personified the general confusion in the town.
'We are still in great shock and we are confused. It is still not clear to us how we are going to go forward, but we have resolved that when the current stock is exhausted, we will have no choice but to focus on selling chicken until we hear more.
“The current stock will be finished over the weekend.
“We had considered buying packaged meat from Maun, but we are afraid it will finish very soon. We are also awaiting clarification as to whether we will be allowed to buy meat from there or not,” she said, on condition of anonymity.
According to the manager, the butchery was preparing for slaughter when news arrived that everything must be put on ice with immediate effect.
“We slaughter 14 cattle each week and the last time we slaughtered was last week Monday,' she said.
Mtshengisi Nzula of Meat Point said he was equally worried by the latest developments. Meat Point is one of the busiest butcheries in Lobatse.
“We are very worried since our survival depends on the meat business. We are left only with stock that will be finished by Saturday and we are waiting to see what will happen.
“We will be forced to close when we run out of stock and there is nothing we can do,” Nzula said.
BMC spokesperson, Brian Dioka said the facility had stopped production, although other ‘non-meat’ related operations were ongoing.
“We have closed only the production line. That means we are not slaughtering and we are not buying cattle into the slaughter facility. We are also not exporting. “However, Francistown, Maun, Cape Town and London BMC are all operating,” he said.
Dioka said BMC was responding affirmatively to the Department of Veterinary Services’ call for a cessation in cattle movements and exports.
“We are responding affirmatively to the decision taken by government since this is a matter of protocol. We don’t want to be caught wanting as a prized reputation carrier of the beef sector.”
Dioka further said the BMC was concerned about the fall-out from the beef freeze, particularly since the Lobatse abattoir was the hub of the meat export industry in Botswana.
The Lobatse plant slaughters between 600 and 650 cattle each day of its five working days a week, with much of its production targeted towards lucrative export markets in the European Union.
Currently the BMC has 1,200 cattle in its feedlot, which will not be slaughtered until the beef freeze is relaxed.
“We are as concerned as the farmers because this abattoir is at the centre of the beef market,” Dioka said.
“The only thing we have been told is that there is buffalo incursion in Zone 11 where BMC Lobatse operates. We have not been told whether the buffalo is sick or how many they are.
“That is why we took the decision to close the production line.”
According to Dioka, even though activities have ground to a halt, the BMC will still pay farmers who sold before the suspension.
“This is a national issue and we cannot at this point blame anyone.
“People are aware and they know what is expected of them. We are calling on Batswana to be calm and focused and not to panic because undue panic will create another emergency. Let’s give the technocrats the benefit of the doubt to deal with this issue,” he said.
Police in the region have since beefed up their roadblocks to curb the movement of animals and animal products in the region. The police have said they will enforce the penalties associated with attempting to move animal and animal products in or out of Zone 11.