FMD restrictions hit Ngamiland
Boniface Keakabetse | Wednesday September 27, 2017 14:26
Last week, the minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Patrick Ralotsia revealed a suspected scare at Namanyane near Sehitwa village and a consequent cattle movement freeze was imposed for surveillance to ascertain the incident.
So far, butcheries and abattoirs have been closed due to the embargo.
Sector representatives for lodges at Hotel and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB), Lesh Moiteelwa told Mmegi Business that member tourism operators will face a critical shortage of meat starting from this week. This is if the restrictions extend to the next week. Moiteelwa noted that due to the ongoing blanket movement restrictions, lodges here and the Okavango Delta will be able to order meat at the detriment of the entire industry. However, he said veterinary services officials have not officially informed them as HATAB so that they could inform their members about the situation.
“A situation like this is cumbersome as there are many stakeholders involved in the tourism value chain that operators need to inform when a scare like this happens,” Moiteelwa said. “We have to inform international agents who book tourists to us and the tourists themselves. But we cannot at the moment, as there has been no official statement to us from DVS,” he added.
He explained at press time yesterday that he was making efforts to contact DVS officials on the situation saying as HATAB they are looking for a waiver for lodges to be able to stock up meat.
“Camps require tonnes of beef. We pray that government could give us a waiver so we could replenish our stocks. Usually when there is (an) FMD (scare), DVS does not impose a blanket ban on movements as it is the case this year.”
Maun Lodge general manager, Ngonidashe Shumba also reaffirmed fears of the potential shortages. However, he said his facility has enough stockpiles to last them for a week saying that for the coming week they would have to find alternative supplies. He opined that as many butcheries and local suppliers have run out of supplies this may raise the price of beef in Maun, something the industry did not budget for.
With butcheries in Maun and abattoirs closed down, efforts to get a comment from the Botswana Meat Commission about the situation were futile at press time. A source, however, revealed that production has been frozen. The source also revealed that there is beef stockpile at the abattoir, which was kept for sale. The abattoir reportedly supplied local suppliers for distribution in Gaborone and other main towns. It is not yet clear when the restrictions will be lifted.