FMD outbreak in SA hits Botswana hard

Briefing parliament on Friday, the Minister of Agriculture, Christian De Graff said the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) has also been adversely affected since local beef destined to European Union (EU) and other markets, which transit through South Africa, have been stopped.

He said as it is standard practice, the international community has banned importation of fresh livestock products from South Africa and this includes Botswana beef. De Graff said since the FMD outbreak was reported in South Africa, the Ministry of Agriculture banned the importation of live cloven-hoofed animals and unprocessed products derived from cloven -hoofed animals from that country.