Interim EPAs open new export opportunities to the EU

STRYKER MOTLALOSO
Staff Writer | Friday February 8, 2008 00:00

 

'We have to talk to people so that they understand,' the Minister says. 'We have improved prices at the BMC. There is excitement.

'There are complaints here and there, but it is as with salaries - we get paid but we still explain.'

Under the interim economic partnership agreements (EPAs) that took effect on January 1, the beef quota restriction was lifted.  Before then, Botswana could only sell 18, 960 tonnes of beef to the EU with an eight percent duty.

The interim EPAs have both removed the quota restriction and the tarriff. On whether Batswana were exploiting the new dispensation to export diversified beef products to the EU, Swartz says it is important for people to know that there is a much bigger opening for their products in the EU now; people should have weaners and feedlots on their cattle farms.

Swartz says his ministry is working on the Botswana Meat Commission Act to break the monopoly of the BMC and allow private investors to participate in the cattle slaughter business.

He describes the foot-and-mouth (FMD) situation in Ngami as unfortunate because the EU market is suspicious of products coming from disease-infected areas. 

But he remains optimistic that the disease will be brought under control and believes that the government has seen the need to fence up the area.Swartz is nonetheless disturbed by negative publicity and attacks from certain quarters in ACP (African, Carribean and Pacific countries where Bobirwa MP Shaw Kgathi recently came under fire for the country's handling of the FMD in Ngami.