Namibia stepped up to fill the void after Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) failed to meet the Norwegian beef quota under the Southern African Customs Union-European Free Trade Agreement for two consecutive years, The Business Weekly & Review has established.
The two countries are now in a race of beef supremacy in which Namibia is determined to make its name in the beef industry while Botswana is scrambling to reaffirm its dominance.
This week, The Business Weekly & Review had an in-depth interview with the Minister of Agriculture, Fidelis Molao, in a quest to establish the reasons behind Botswana’s shortfalls in the beef industry and efforts to protect its territory, especially in the lucrative European Union (EU) market.
This publication engaged the minister after it emerged that Namibia is actually supplying more beef to the EU than Botswana, which is traditionally the number one beef market for Botswana. The Business Weekly & Review has seen a communiqué issued recently by the Meat Board of Namibia (MBN) which shows that beef exporters in the neighbouring country were able to make full use of Namibia’s 50 percent share (1 600 tonnes) of the available SACU-Norwegian beef quota of 3 200 tonnes for 2021.The quota was allocated by Norway to Namibia and Botswana jointly.
Describing the Norwegian market as an extremely lucrative one for Namibia, the communiqué said since Botswana could not utilise its 50 percent share of the 3 200 tonnes allocated jointly for the two countries, Namibia was also able to supplement that deficit of approximately 700 tonnes. “This is despite a significant decrease in beef marketing numbers during 2021, compared to 2020,” said MBN in a statement three weeks ago.
The latest development comes hardly a year after President Mokgweetsi Masisi had requested a top Norwegian official to increase Botswana’s beef quota. At a meeting with Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Marianne Hagen, President Masisi said Botswana was ready for an increased beef quota trade, reportedly adding that Botswana wished to grow its most edible product, beef.
It is understood that this was linked to the urgent need for increased youth employment in Botswana. Marianne reportedly said Norway was currently negotiating the beef deal with Botswana and SACU.
In the interview with Minister Molao, The Business Weekly & Review sought to establish why Botswana has failed to meet its quota of the annual 1,600 tons of beef to Norway to a point where Namibia supplemented a part of that deficit. In response, Molao said for eight years between 2012 and 2020, the parastatal Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) did not default in utilisation of the Norway-SACU EFTA quota.
However, in 2021 the BMC was able to utilise only 56 percent (or 869mt) on the Norway-SACU EFTA annual portion allocated to Botswana, being 1,538 metric tons. In 2022, Minister Molao said, there were general improvements in the quota utilisation as the BMC managed to export to Norway an approximately 77 percent or 1,174 metric tons.
“The challenges that the business/BMC encountered for both years were premiered, in the main, by critically reduced cattle supplies/throughput to BMC – as the majority of supply/selling was taken over by the live cattle export dispensation,” the minister said. In 2021, he added, the BMC was able to slaughter only about 19,167 cattle, which rose to 36,125 in 2022. This contrasted sharply against 167,072 cattle exported alive from Botswana in 2021 and 176,476 in 2022.
According to the minister, for BMC/Botswana to merely utilise its annual allocation (1,538mt) of the Norway-SACU EFTA quota – taking cognisance of the type of product mix exportable to Norway, which is specifically boneless hindquarter prime cuts, it requires the slaughter of a minimum of 25,000 EU-eligible cattle per year for that market alone.
While cattle supply to the BMC had been improving in 2022, Molao noted that Botswana was dealt yet another hard blow by the emergence of Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) in disease control area Zone 6B (North East District) – which impaired on all EU exports. Therefore, he stated, between July and October 2022, Botswana/BMC could not export any beef product to any European country, including Norway. This episodic problem added to the BMC’s inability to fulfil the quota because in order to comply with quota provisions, the last loads out of Botswana ought to have been done before the end of October every year, Molao explained.
In another question, this publication wanted to know whether at the time Botswana agreed to supply the Norwegian market, was it confident that it would meet the demand. In answer, Minister Molao said that Botswana/BMC remains determined to fully comply with utilisation of its portion of the quota as it did in the years preceding 2021. The improved management of customer relations with Botswana cattle farmers, which is attributable to not only competitive but also attractive cattle prices at the BMC, the enhanced cattle turnaround times of payment to cattle suppliers, as well as logistical support initiatives being implemented in terms of the BMC’s Meriting 2022/25 Strategy, should be seen in this light.
Over and above these improvements, Molao noted, the BMC also increased the number of distributors of its products in Norway to ensure export optimisation as well as to drive better sales margins. “Additional to Botswana/BMC’s commitment to the Norwegians – a high-level delegation led by the Assistant Minister Molebatsi Molebatsi (and including BMC Board and Management, as well as farmers and Exco members from the Botswana National Beef Producers Union) – visited Norway from October 28 to November 02, 2022 as part of the market development programme and attestations for improved exports going forward, where the delegation met varied stakeholders in Norway including government,” Molao said.
But The Business Weekly & Review is worried by the fact that while Botswana grapples with some challenges, Namibia is busy filling in the lacuna. Globally, Botswana has been known as one of the leading beef producers in Africa. According to Molao, the distinct taste and flavour of Botswana beef that comes from its organic nature, traceability of the source animals, as well as wider food safety and hygiene compliance at the BMC, remain inimitable throughout the continent. This is in addition to the country’s more referenceable sources and continued access to the European Union and other equally lucrative markets over the last 70 years.
“Infact, Botswana/BMC is morphing into a centre of excellence, given its vast knowledge in global beef exports in the continent where many countries and their processors continuously benchmark on its processes,” said the minister. “The biggest undoing remains evasive cattle supplies (seasonality of supply) which may also be traced to a seriously reducing national herd compared to yesteryears.”
Minister Molao emphasised that it would also be important, especially in Norway, to note that the BMC deliberately prioritises sending above-prime hindquarter cuts (derived from younger cattle aged between 24 and 36 months) as part of its demand-driven sales strategy and attractive price-points. This has created a distinct niche segment/profile for Botswana beef within the Norwegian market that should be maintained for competitiveness for the long haul.
But what is Namibia doing better than Botswana? Molao responded that Botswana/BMC remains handicapped to openly discuss matters of another country. However, he added, it must be noted that BMC/Botswana progressively visits different countries around the world to compare its sector processes and identify areas in need of improvement in order to optimise its own beef value chain. “As part of government policy to also strengthen value-addition and manufacturing/industrilisation, and forestall exportation of raw materials, it would be important for the country to prioritise exporting value added beef products to lucrative markets such as Norway as this is only provable to enable long term sustainability to cattle farming in Botswana,” he said. “To that end, the government must demand optimal performance of the BMC and the entire local beef value chain to ensure that they are able to compete and respond to global trade demands.”
DECLINE IN CATTLE POPULATION
Meanwhile, official statistics show that Botswana’s cattle population is on a decline due a number of factors like mortality, and theft. Molao acknowledged that the cattle population is declining and added climate change and drought to blameworthy factors, noting that these result in poor nutrition and conception, which in turn leads to low calving rates. Poor livestock management, which include incorrect bull: cow ratios and therefore conception and calving rates, reproductive diseases that affect conception and calving rates, were also noted by the minister.
The Business Weekly & Review was worried by now much impact the decline in cattle population has on the beef industry. Minister Molao’s response was that there are no studies which suggest that there is a direct correlation between the declining population and offtake to the BMC. However, he revealed a number factors that do affect offtake to the BMC. These include prices offered, the turnaround time for payment to cattle farmers, as well as market share by competitors like butcheries and speculators.
These factors also have a bearing on the growth of the beef industry, hence government intervention in the subsector. The minister mentioned interventions like the Revised Artificial Insemination, establishment of the Meat Regulatory Authority (MIRA), intensified extension outreach and farmers’ training, as well as adoption of value chain development through cluster initiatives.
While the 2020 data is not yet available, the 2019 annual agricultural survey report shows that the cattle population for the traditional sector dropped from 1.1 million in 2017 to 935,000 in 2019. The 2019 survey results are compared with those of 2017 because there was no survey carried out in 2018. This decline in the cattle population, according to Statistics Botswana, is also due to an increase in cattle deaths that rose from 64,447 in 2017 to 102,255 in 2019. Cattle lost due to straying numbered 79,799 in 2017 and 53,571 in 2019.
Despite the increase in the cattle birth rate from 47.3 percent to 56.5 percent in the latest available statistics, the mortality rate doubled from 5.9 percent in 2017 to 10.9 percent in 2019 while the offtake rate increased from 5.5 percent to 7.0 percent during the same period. The mortality was attributed to the severe drought that ravaged the country during the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 seasons. Both seasons, 2017/18 and 2018/19, were declared drought years for the whole country (Botswana Environment Statistics, Natural and Technological Disasters Digest 2,019), hence the decline in both crop and livestock production indicators was attributed to drought.
Agriculture in Botswana consists of two sectors, namely the commercial and the traditional. For 2019, the survey covered the traditional sector while the commercial sector coverage is reported to have been low and therefore cannot be used to produce meaningful results to guide policy and decision-making. The last survey which covered the commercial segment of cattle production shows that there were 383,699 cattle under this category.
Likewise, the 2017 survey – which was the last one to be conducted before the 2019 one – covered only the traditional sector reportedly because of lack of resources and other administrative logistics. Going a decade back, figures indicate that the cattle population in Botswana increased significantly from 2.413 million in 2009 to 2.659 million in 2010, mostly in the traditional sector.
The cost of FMD
In his interview with The Business Weekly & Review, Minister Molao revealed that the government spends an estimated P52.7 million on control of foot and mouth disease (FMD), This excluding the cost of controlling FMD outbreaks. However, the question remains whether Botswana will ever reach a point where it has completely won the fight against FMD. In response, the minister said FMD is unlikely to be completely eradicated in Botswana because of the presence of the natural host of the virus (FMD), buffaloes, in the northern parts of the country.
“However, over the years the government has been implementing a very successful FMD programme that has seen progressive eradication of FMD,” he noted. “Currently 14 out of the 17 (80 percent) zones are officially FMD-free. This status is recognised by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). The Botswana FMD control programme is based on a zonation system underpinned by a network of cordon fences which isolate non-FMD areas and countries from the country’s FMD-free areas.”
In non-FMD free areas (Chobe and Ngamiland), FMD is effectively controlled by local FMD vaccines produced at Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI). Molao said FMD is a disruprive disease of economic significance and implications that causes severe losses. The control programme has enabled the country to access high value export markets, including the EU, as well as beef and live cattle to regional markets.
“Control of FMD is admittedly difficult due to resource challenges required to maintain disease control infrastructure and adequate levels of herd immunity,” Minister Molao said. “Disease control infrastructure is also subject to intense damage by wildlife, especially elephants but also vandalism.”
