Africa-Press – Botswana. The Government has ignored local farmers’ long-standing request to allow the dispensation of the export of live cattle as a permanent arrangement.
This comes after the government made it clear this week that the dispensation for the export of live cattle for slaughter will end on 31 December this year.
The government says from the 1st of July to 28 September, each exporter will be allowed to export cattle twice per month while from the 1st of October to the 31st of December each exporter will be allowed to export cattle only once per month.
The decision puts an end to what was fast becoming a lucrative market for Botswana based cattle ranchers who have been increasing the number of live cattle exports since it was allowed in 2019, with more than 205 000 cattle sold largely to South Africa and Namibia.
In response, the Botswana Beef Producers Union (BNBPU) spokesperson Andrew Seeletso said they had hoped that government will consider their request by making the arrangement permanent given that export of live cattle has never competed with or disturbed the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in anyhow.
“For all we know, this arrangement got the best out of BMC and we strongly believed that it will benefit the entire farming industry. We firmly believe in competition and that is why we advocate for the full liberalization of the industry,”
“The fact of the matter is that prices in South Africa have gone down and as we speak BMC because it has been revitalized it has started paying the best regional export parity price and those are market imperatives,” said Seeletso.
He also said they have always appealed to the government to allow prices to be determined by the market.
“We understand that the industry has different players and we are of the view that maybe the government consulted other farmers,” stated Seeletso.
The Union mouthpiece further said there have always been consultations on different matters adding that it does not mean that the suggestions will be implemented.
He said even though they are against the suspension of the arrangement, they are however delighted at the fact that government will allow Ngamiland farmers to continue selling their live cattle.
“As you know Ngamiland are not able to sell their cattle to the European Union and I think it is only fair that we agree that indeed the government took a good decision to give them an extension,” added Seeletso.
The live cattle was approved by the government as a relief measure to assist farmers to access other markets as a result of the ongoing restructuring of the country’s cattle industry.
Europe is currently Botswana’s best-paying beef market in Botswana, the state-owned beef exporting company – BMC said in January 2020 that it was objecting to the live exports of cattle.
BMC has previously said its position is that live-cattle exports out of Botswana should be considered only when excess national processing capacity is addressed and only when proper regulatory frameworks are in place to protect the country against exploitation and erosion of national herd.
According Statistics Botswana, the value of live cattle exports was P72.4 million in 2019, then surged to P447.2 million in 2020, and doubled to P876.7 million in 2021 and topped P1.1 billion in 2022. In the first quarter of 2023, live cattle exports became the third main contributor to exports, netting in P294 million in the three months.
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