‘ Beef value chain is Botswana’s competitive edge’
While the Covid- 19 pandemic has posed global economic depression Botswana has been advised to consider beef value chain as this is the country’s competitive sector in the export market.
In his presentat ion during the ongoing Global Expo, Africa Development Bank, Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization, Solomon Quaynor said Botswana produces the best quality beef in Africa but it has not yet explored the beef value chain.
“Even though South Africa and Zimbabwe claim to be the best producers of beef, Botswana actually produces the best quality beef in Africa. This is relatively unknown and this is what we need to change. However I cannot find Botswana branded beef when I travel across Africa. This is the best time to prioritize beef value chain in Africa.”
He said Botswana should attract key private sector operators like JBS and Minerva Foods from Brazil to relocate global production into Botswana, taking advantage of Botswana breeds to serve the rest of Africa and Middle East.
“However, Botswana has a small market size though with the potential to serve the global market. Not only does Botswana have competitive beef but it has some unique breeds as well and instead of just looking at the small market why not look at the rest of African Market of 1.3 billion population.”
Botswana is among the largest producers of beef in Africa and the fifth- largest exporter for beef globally. The Botswana beef industry has been growing intensively over the years. The country has about 1.8 million heads of cattle.
He said Africa should look into value creation competitive products while leveraging on regional economic agreements such as the Tripatite Free Trade Agreement, Commessa as well as the broader Africa agreement free trade which is set to come into implementation in January 2021.
For her part, Assistant Minister of Agriculture Development and Food Security Beauty Manake said Botswana has been very conservative and specifically focusing on beef industry for export to other countries. However, the country is importing over $ 800 Million worth of food annually. She said in efforts to address post Covid- 19 challenges; government has conducted production capacity analysis and categorization of farmers and found out how they can improve the local production capacity. “In this way we came up with disruptive innovative financing which will be implemented with different financial agencies. Once we see that production is increased, we will be able to assess the value chains and see where we have the capacity to export,” said Manake.