Last year, the BMC's Lobatse, Francistown, and to a lesser extent, Maun abattoirs slaughtered 179, 009 cattle, a 32 percent increase on the numbers processed in 2009. The closest the Commission came to the 2010 figures was in 2007 when it slaughtered 171, 231 cattle. The figures for 2010 were almost 19, 000 higher than targets set for the year and were in line with the BMC's hopes of eventually processing 300, 000 cattle, which would represent full utilisation of capacity.
On Wednesday, new BMC CEO, David Falepau, told Mmegi the higher throughput would have a profound impact on the Commission's costs of production and that the higher figures were as a result of the strategies employed within the industry. "We have a fixed labour force, which means we employ people to slaughter 650 cattle per day whether or not we have that," he said. "So for us to operate efficiently, we need to kill those 650. Going below that makes it more expensive per head to slaughter. Our target will be around 230, 000 to 250, 000 at which we would be operating at maximum in terms of our labour. Throughput is thus very important for the BMC and the industry as a whole, in terms of the capacity utilised and the efficiency."
