{"id":3786,"date":"2021-09-30T13:29:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T13:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/farmers-blast-meraka-lesotho"},"modified":"2021-09-30T14:07:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T14:07:26","slug":"farmers-blast-meraka-lesotho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/farmers-blast-meraka-lesotho","title":{"rendered":"Farmers blast Meraka Lesotho"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>CATTLE farmers and butcheries are not happy with Meraka Lesotho. Their anger is still palpable months after the government banned beef imports and announced that Meraka Lesotho was to be the only licenced slaughter house.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s according to the howls of complaints from farmers who attended last Thursday\u2019s meeting between officials from the Meraka Lesotho, meat traders and other stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting was organised by the Development for Peace Education (DPE), a lobby group. The farmers said they are not happy that Meraka Lesotho is now a monopoly in the wholesale beef market.<\/p>\n<p>They also complained that Meraka is competing with them in the market because it is also aggressively pushing for contracts to supply meat to government departments like the army. They said Meraka Lesotho is also pinching their retail market.<\/p>\n<p>Some even said when they take animals for slaughter, the abattoir takes away some organs like the liver, saying they were not good for human consumption because the slaughtered beast was sick.<\/p>\n<p>Teboho Posholi of Cool Foods said importing a live animal is a bit steep for farmers compared to importing carcasses, which they are not allowed to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis makes the meat we sell more expensive as our costs for importing live animals are also high,\u201d Posholi said.<\/p>\n<p>He however said he believes that the DPE\u2019s intervention might help bring solutions. \u201cThe platform was open for all relevant stakeholders. It means we will end up finding a solution to our challenges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mosito Khethisa, chief executive of Meraka Lesotho, said he has always been willing to work cordially with farmers. But he noted that this is difficult because some of them are pushing interests of South African businesses affected by Lesotho\u2019s ban on meat imports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey say my prices are high but my prices are very competitive and reasonable in the market,\u201d Khethisa said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey just do not want to understand that I also incur costs, which is not the case for the South African businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said he has hires trucks to fetch the animals, pay border tax and employ people to offload the animals. \u201cThe businesses in South Africa do not have these costs hence they will sell the meat at a cheaper price,\u201d Khethisa said.<\/p>\n<p>He further said on the issue of cutting some organs it is only done when veterinary doctors have declared them unfit for human consumption. \u201cIt is usually on organs like the liver and not the whole intestines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said there is no law that prohibits him from tendering, just like bakeries are not barred from seeking contracts to supply bread, or Maluti Brewery to supply drinks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, I did tell them that we can sit down and discuss the issue. I am more than willing to bow out of small tenders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cThey can have those and I can have the big ones and it becomes a win-win situation for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\nHe said the criticism against Meraka is unfair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am even starting to think it is personal because they do not come to me so that we can solve these issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cSome of them (issues) are not even our fault.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\nMeanwhile, Tlaba Mochebelele of Young Lesotho Farmers Association said the ban of red meat imports will help them grow their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis ban means that even those who did not consider us are now giving us a chance. We are slowly penetrating the markets too,\u201d Mochebelele said. He said he only wished that government had informed and trained farmers on best practices so they make the most of the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClimate change does not make things easy for us because we are still far behind in terms of agricultural technology, especially for livestock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven the type of animal food that our animals get is not modern, like the ones used by farmers in other countries.<\/p>\n<p>We are still dependent on pastures and they are not sufficient. \u201d<br \/>\nHe said suitable feed for animals is expensive and that makes it hard for farmers to sustain their animals.<\/p>\n<p>Teboho Mot\u0161ephe of Meat and Deli at Sakeng in Khubetsoana and General Secretary of Meat Traders Association said there are still challenges facing the industry but there is no point in fighting Meraka Lesotho.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWanting to know the owner of Meraka does not help us grow our businesses.<\/p>\n<p>However, if the focus is on fighting the system that inhibits our businesses to grow like that of Meraka selling to individuals, then it is worth fighting,\u201d Mot\u0161ephe said.<\/p>\n<p>He further explained that since the DPE\u2019s mediation Meraka has turned away individual buyers. \u201cThat means with time we will gain more customers which were previously served by Meraka.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. CATTLE farmers and butcheries are not happy with Meraka Lesotho. Their anger is still palpable months after the government banned beef imports and announced that Meraka Lesotho was to be the only licenced slaughter house. That\u2019s according to the howls of complaints from farmers who attended last Thursday\u2019s meeting between officials from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[233,246,313,245],"class_list":["post-3786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-farmers","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Farmers blast Meraka Lesotho - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CATTLE farmers and butcheries are not happy with Meraka Lesotho. 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