The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) Maun Abattoir owes farmers P1.4 million.
The total owed towards Maun farmers as at the beginning of September 2023, was P21 million, but this has since been reduced to P1.4 million as of 4th December 2023, Minister of Entrepreneurship, Karabo Gare has said.
He highlighted that the pace at which BMC is able to pay the outstanding balance is hampered by the fact that some farmers do not have bank accounts. According to Gare, to mitigate this, BMC continues to engage farmers to obtain details for the remaining farmers so as to utilise a debit card dispensation, done in partnership with banks, for processing payments for those without bank accounts.
“Farmers should continue having the confidence on BMC, that they have demonstrated over the years. The challenges that BMC has faced in paying farmers in this region have never been insurmountable, as demonstrated by the current pace of addressing what was a temporary set-back.
“The Government Feeding Programme, running over a two-year period, utilising beef from Maun BMC will go a long way in addressing the cash flow challenges that were impacting on the payment turnaround time for Maun farmers,” Gare said.
Gare was responding to a question from MP for Ngami, Kainangura Hikuama, who asked the Minister to brief Parliament on the cause of the delayed payment to farmers by the Maun Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) abattoir; and to further state: the rationale by the abattoir to keep on calling farmers to bring their cattle to BMC, while knowing well that they have no capacity to pay the farmers.
The minister revealed that the delays in paying farmers by the Maun Abattoir has been largely due to the running costs exceeding revenue generated from the abattoir. The abattoir, he said is operating at an extremely low capacity, averaging about 20 percent of designed capacity, due to low number of cattle.
Gare stated that Government provides a special annual subvention for the Maun abattoir as a way of bridging the financial deficit. He told Parliament that the beef from Maun abattoir sells slowly in the market, due to the fact that, it comes from an FMD endemic area, it is sold as boneless.
“Its bulk off-take locally is by secondary-processing through the Lobatse cannery, and to produce ECCO canned products; although BMC remains committed to its service-charter of paying farmers within 14 days, the realities are that BMC Maun however is only able to receive payment and/or revenue from sale of cattle after 30-45 days,” he said, adding that this negatively affects BMC's payment turnaround time.
The minister stated that Government and the BMC, are working on increasing markets for the BMC Maun product - and is convinced that such efforts coupled with stabilising the operations, will result in improved payment cycle-times. He said BMC has capacity to pay farmers in the Maun region and it is a reliable market for the farmers.
“The meat from cattle in the Maun region is processed at the Lobatse cannery facility. The two-year contract of the Government Feeding Programme with BMC, will alleviate the current Maun cash-flow challenge, by improving farmers' payments. the payment backlog has been contained as evidenced by the significant reduction in outstanding farmers' payments,” the minister said.
The total owed towards Maun farmers as at the beginning of September 2023, was P21 million, but this has since been reduced to P1.4 million as of 4th December 2023, Minister of Entrepreneurship, Karabo Gare has said.
He highlighted that the pace at which BMC is able to pay the outstanding balance is hampered by the fact that some farmers do not have bank accounts. According to Gare, to mitigate this, BMC continues to engage farmers to obtain details for the remaining farmers so as to utilise a debit card dispensation, done in partnership with banks, for processing payments for those without bank accounts.
“Farmers should continue having the confidence on BMC, that they have demonstrated over the years. The challenges that BMC has faced in paying farmers in this region have never been insurmountable, as demonstrated by the current pace of addressing what was a temporary set-back.
“The Government Feeding Programme, running over a two-year period, utilising beef from Maun BMC will go a long way in addressing the cash flow challenges that were impacting on the payment turnaround time for Maun farmers,” Gare said.
Gare was responding to a question from MP for Ngami, Kainangura Hikuama, who asked the Minister to brief Parliament on the cause of the delayed payment to farmers by the Maun Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) abattoir; and to further state: the rationale by the abattoir to keep on calling farmers to bring their cattle to BMC, while knowing well that they have no capacity to pay the farmers.
The minister revealed that the delays in paying farmers by the Maun Abattoir has been largely due to the running costs exceeding revenue generated from the abattoir. The abattoir, he said is operating at an extremely low capacity, averaging about 20 percent of designed capacity, due to low number of cattle.
Gare stated that Government provides a special annual subvention for the Maun abattoir as a way of bridging the financial deficit. He told Parliament that the beef from Maun abattoir sells slowly in the market, due to the fact that, it comes from an FMD endemic area, it is sold as boneless.
“Its bulk off-take locally is by secondary-processing through the Lobatse cannery, and to produce ECCO canned products; although BMC remains committed to its service-charter of paying farmers within 14 days, the realities are that BMC Maun however is only able to receive payment and/or revenue from sale of cattle after 30-45 days,” he said, adding that this negatively affects BMC's payment turnaround time.
The minister stated that Government and the BMC, are working on increasing markets for the BMC Maun product - and is convinced that such efforts coupled with stabilising the operations, will result in improved payment cycle-times. He said BMC has capacity to pay farmers in the Maun region and it is a reliable market for the farmers.
“The meat from cattle in the Maun region is processed at the Lobatse cannery facility. The two-year contract of the Government Feeding Programme with BMC, will alleviate the current Maun cash-flow challenge, by improving farmers' payments. the payment backlog has been contained as evidenced by the significant reduction in outstanding farmers' payments,” the minister said.
