Tsabong Multi-Species Abattoir delayed
Completion of the new Tsabong Multi-Species Abattoir has been delayed by a year, meaning it will only be opened by April 2024, BusinessMonitor has learnt.
When delivering this year’s State of Nation Address (SONA) last week, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said the delays in the timely completion of the facility were largely caused by global supply chain constraints.
“The construction of the Tsabong world class multispecies abattoir, which was expected to be completed by April 2023, will now be operationalised by April 2024,” he said in the televised address.
Masisi added the establishment of the abattoir is a demonstration of his government’s commitment to growing the small stock industry and other species exponentially. The P163 million state-of-the-art facility is expected to play a role in marketing Botswana beef, mutton, lamb, chevon and game meat amongst others.
Equally, it will be instrumental in facilitating the production and marketing of livestock and game products thus increasing the country’s export revenue.
In addition, the project will facilitate the growth of the livestock sector skills transfer and dissemination as it is one of the critical links to the implementation of the beef and small stock cluster strategies which are key in improving commercialisation.
The abattoir will service the Kgalagadi, Kweneng West and Southern districts. The Ministry of Agriculture plans to lease out the abattoir to a private investor and the investor will determine the number of employees to efficiently operate the business. Farmers will supply the live animals to the abattoir or the abattoir could go into a farming contract with the investor.
Meanwhile, the President said government has introduced strategic interventions aimed at increasing livestock, which include the provision of quality breeding stock from state-owned multiplication farms and training farmers in good animal husbandry.
The government is also identifying 13 government ranches which will be subdivided into 57 small stock ranches to be availed to farmers before April 2024 or earlier as well as upgrading of the Ramatlabama Artificial Insemination lab to include small stock semen and embryo production by 2024-2025.