Meat commission negotiates more beef markets
Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) is in talks over possible beef export to Russia and the US, in addition to advanced negotiations to export to China.
25 February 2020
2 minute read
The BMC sales and marketing manager Mr Tshepo Modise explained this recently, pointing that they were constantly looking to find more export market opportunities for Botswana beef.
The official was briefing a delegation from the UK Commonwealth Parliament Association (CPA), which was in Lobatse to learn about operations at BMC.
"We are currently in dialogue with the People's Republic of China, Russia and the United States to establish protocols to be able to trade to those markets as well," Mr Modise said.
He said BMC at the moment was exporting beef to EU member states, together with Norway, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola and Mauritius.
He added that BMC in 2018 supplied 7 500 tonnes of beef to the EU and 1 600 tonnes to Norway, which remained the commission's most lucrative markets.
However, the official pointed that shortage in the supply of cattle by farmers to BMC was causing its abattoirs to operate below their daily slaughter capacity.
"We closed the Francistown plant a year and half ago to try and increase the capacity percentage in Lobatse because the costs were high, but we were not getting enough profit on both of them," he said.
He said the Lobatse abattoir at the moment operated at around 65 per cent of its 650 cattle per day slaughter capacity.
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Source: AllAfrica
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