Texan cattle transportation cost gov't P8.6m

Cattle from USA arriving at SSKA PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO
Cattle from USA arriving at SSKA PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO

While it was revealed in May that the acquisition of elite cattle breeds from Texas, USA cost Botswana P25 million, government has since disclosed that transporting the 162 high-quality breeding cattle alone gobbled P8.6 million.

Responding to a question in Parliament on Friday, Minister of Agriculture Fidelis Molao said the total shipping costs of cattle from the USA to Botswana is P8.6 million while the transportation cost from Gaborone to Ramatlabama was P212,803.80. Ramatlabama National AI Laboratory is now home to the 141 bulls and 21 heifers bought by government in May. Molao was responding to a question from Ngami legislator, Caterpillar Hikuama who had asked amongst others about the total cost of imported cattle from the USA.

“In order to improve the national herd and its genetic merit, government invested in the procurement of breeding cattle for purposes of semen and embryo production. The average price of bulls was P95,000.

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