Beef industry woes expected to continue

Botswana's lucrative beef export industry is struggling to recover after recent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease (FMD) and persistent drought conditions. Two outbreaks of FMD over the last two years have seen a steady decline in beef exports to the European Union (EU) and other emerging markets, resulting in job losses as thousands of cattle were destroyed to control the disease. In 2001 the country exported beef worth more than P350 million (about US $72.2 million). As a result of the FMD outbreak in 2002, the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) lost US $4.5 million. The BMC is expected to produce a disappointing set of financial results in 2003 after a further loss of about US $2 million, due to closing its meat processing abbatoirs to ensure full compliance with the strict certification requirements of the EU. "This closure was necessary to ensure rapid response to the identified shortcomings, which could not be adequately addressed while the abbatoirs are in full operation," Micus Chimbombi, director of animal health and production, told IRIN. Botswana enjoys greatly reduced tariffs, or tariff quotas, on fixed quantities of beef exports to the EU. The EU market continues to be the leading destination for Botswana beef, accounting for 68.3 percent of sales in 2001. But the country has never been able to fulfil its annual 18,916 mt quota because of low productivity and, more recently, drought and outbreaks of disease. However, the EU faces competition from other markets. "BMC's policy is to divert the meat to the market with the highest net returns. Norway and Reunion prices are always better than that of the EU hence their requirements are fulfilled first," BMC Executive Chairman Motshudi Raborokgwe said. Botswana's beef exports are internationally popular, mainly because cattle are raised on rangelands free of chemical treatment, but experts say the country has not fully exploited this advantage. Official estimates indicate that about US $13 million per annum is lost to the BMC as a result of deaths caused by starvation and lack of market facilities. BMC has various schemes for assisting farmers. The abattoir delivery assurance scheme provides a bonus to farmers who pledge to supply a certain number of cattle to it at a specified time. Farmers are also given advance payment to purchase feed and breeding stock to improve the quality of herds. The pre-payments are recovered from slaughter proceeds, on condition that money disbursed is for cattle delivered exclusively to BMC. Livestock owners complain that the government is not doing enough to help farmers deal with natural disasters. "In Serowe in December alone we lost about 30,000 cattle because of the drought, and about 12,000 in the Kgalagadi area [in the southwest], and we have had no government assistance," said Captain Seetelo Kgositau, a livestock owner in Serowe, in eastern Botswana. Frequent droughts have had an adverse impact on the quality and quantity of farm output but analysts believe that cattle farming will survive despite the current problems in the industry. Leutlwetse Tumelo, managing director of Business Data Services, told IRIN: "Jobs in cattle farming offer very low remunerations, little or no job security, no specific conditions of service - and these jobs are usually very physical. If jobs in this industry offered better or comparable benefits, then it may be possible to reverse this flow, and maybe the industry will grow."