The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) is actively looking for alternative markets outside Europe to sell its beef, in a bid to increase its market share. BMC’s marketing and distribution channels department is now searching for new markets in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. This was revealed by Botswana’s Minister of Agriculture, Patrick Ralotsia in parliament this week.
Ralotsia had requested parliament to approve a recurrent budget of over P1, 088 billion and a development budget of over P813 million for the 2016/17 financial year. Parliament has approved the budget for the Ministry of Agriculture for the 2016/17 financial year. The Minister revealed that Botswana has sent test consignments to the Middle East, Far East, Eastern Europe and also DRC and Mozambique.
Currently, Botswana’s major beef export is the European Union (EU). However in September 2015, a research report released by BIDPA noted that the country’s high ranking beef industry is facing a potential threat. BIDPA warned that the single statutory export market channel through BMC is risky as collapse of the entity would lead to abrupt discontinuation of beef exports to the lucrative EU market.
On a positive note, Ralotsia told the Parliamentary Committee that Botswana fulfilled the Norwegian annual quota for chilled beef and exported 8,027 tonnes of beef to the European markets.
