Less than a month after test killings at the Maun abattoir, Botswana Meat Commission Tender Committe has put out an advert requesting interested parties to show interest for consideration to enter into a partnership to operate the slaughter facility.
The tender said prospective bidders should show proof of business, technical and financial capability and said the interested parties could be locally or internationally based.
The applicants should show previous involvement in an abattoir and meat processing as well as an overview of potential synergies that the party can bring to the proposed partnership.
The Maun abattoir compromises cattle holding kraals, a slaughter line, carcass chillers, a deboning room, a cooking tunnel, blast freezers, cold stores, rendering plant and hide shed.
In future, the refurbished abattoir will have a heat treatment facility to enable it to pre cook meat to an internal temperature of 80 degrees Celsius.
BMC said the heat treatment will facilitate movement of meat to cannery in Lobatse during different Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) scenarios in Ngamiland.
Thabang Machacha, BMC Operations Manager, told Sunday Standard the move has always been in their plan; refurbish the abattoir then look for partners to help them run it.
Their plan, he stressed, was to first refurbish it then advertise for partners when it is already running as they had felt that looking for partners before refurbishing was going to take time.
Maun abattoir has already slaughtered 97 cattle up to now and will hopefully start killing 100 per day next month.
