BMC gets greenlight to EU

KEIKANTSE LESEMELA
Correspondent | Tuesday June 12, 2012 00:00

 

In a statement released yesterday, BMC announced that the Department of Veterinary Services approved the slaughter plant, cutting plant and cold stores at the Lobatse abattoirs for exportation of meat to  local, regional and EU markets by the 6th of July.After inspections conducted by the European Union's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) and Botswana's Department of Veterinary Services (DVS), the BMC was in 2010 barred from exporting to the EU until technical and compliance issues revealed by the inspections were properly addressed.

Although it has been approved for local and regional markets, the Francistown plant is still under inspection for the EU market licence.BMC has forecasted a loss of P77 million for the current financial year following the consecutive recorded losses of P107 million in 2009, P88 million in 2010 and P206 million in 2011.

According to the statement, contributing factors have been both internal and external, including erosion of competitive market prices as a result of the financial meltdown of 2008-2009, foot and mouth disease outbreaks in Botswana and neighbouring countries, which resulted in the loss of the lucrative European market.The EU has been the highest paying market for the bulk of BMC's frozen beef. Between 2006 and 2010, the total beef export revenues to EU stood at P1.9 billion, peaking at a record high of P553 million in 2009. In her search for alternative outlets, Botswana looked at other markets such as Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The total revenue generated from exports to Zimbabwe, for instance, was US$7 612, 000 for 25, 374 cattle.BMC recently announced the closure of its district offices in a bid  to cut down costs.

According to the Auditor General's 2012 report, BMC incurred losses of P87.82million in the financial year up to March 2011. Although the figure is down from P115.13 million in 2010 and P107.39 million in 2009, its financial position remains critical. 'This indicates the existence of material uncertainty over the group's and commission's ability to continue as an on-going concern,' the Auditor General warned.