Meat ban causes shortages in Botswana

The ban on livestock products from South Africa and Swaziland due to the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is causing acute shortages in neighbouring Botswana, agencies reported on Wednesday. Suppliers in Botswana have been finding it increasingly difficult to meet the demand for milk and related products. Supplies to key institutions like hospitals and schools are rapidly dwindling and most supermarkets have run out of dairy products. Last week Botswana’s department of animal health and production slapped an indefinite blanket ban on all livestock products from Swaziland and South Africa. The managing director of Clover Botswana, one of the biggest suppliers of milk products in the country, Koos Kamfer, said that the ban has left his company with no milk to sell.” We are not selling any milk to businesses. The little you can see in the shelves is all that remains. My worst fear is the ban could drag on and on,” he said. Kamfer added that he is negotiating with theauthorities in the agriculture ministry to have the ban lifted on condition that the temperatures of milk and related products into Botswana are increased. The ban came after a new outbreak of foot and mouth disease in South Africa’s eastern province of Mpumalanga from where some of the livestock were exported to Swaziland for re-export. The Botswana ban extended to meat and meat products of all cloven-hoofed animals and game as well as livestock feeds and fodder. This is the second time this year that an outbreak of foot and mouth disease has led to a ban on South African livestock products in Botswana.