By:Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
Botswana received accreditation to export their beef to the United Arab Emirates as of mid-March.
Furthermore, the country intends to access all lucrative markets within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) announced last week.
The accreditation to export Botswana beef to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is with effect from 19th March 2023.
This comes at a time Namibia is desperately seeking markets for its Northern Communal Areas farmers/beef under the commodity-based production and the Arabian markets has been floated to be a potential market.
However, Namibians are beef producers, industry leaders and policymakers are currently engaging in catfights while their competitor Botswana is making moves.
For the first two months of 2023, local slaughtering has been dwindling, with Meatco more affected, while the country’s weaner export continues.
In the statement released by the BMC, they indicated that their accreditation by the Ministry of Climate Change & Environment in the UAE of Botswana beefcomes after a series of rigorous inspections.
Furthermore, quality compliance evaluations of the BMC by the National Independent Halal Trust (NIHT) were also done between December 2022 and February 2023.
The BMC explained that increasing the diversity of lucrative markets for Botswana beef is a cornerstone of the BMC Meriting Strategy 2022/25.
As part of that strategy the BMC’s participation at the Dubai Expo in February 2022 was a critical component and the accreditation is part of some of the results.
The Commission has also indicated that it intends to access all lucrative markets within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and access to the UAE is a critical milestone in the achievement of that goal.
The BMC, in the statement, explained that the accreditation will allow for Botswana farmers to have access to one of the best paying markets of beef in the Middle East.
“It must also be seen as a sustainable incentive for cattle beef production in Botswana,” the statement read, adding that the accreditation reconfirms BMC’s accumulated intellectual resources, capacity, and prowess in issues relating to food safety compliance and global product uniqueness.
As for the Namibian northern export abattoir, which is slaughtering under the commodity-based trade approach strict guidelines, they have slaughtered 313 cattle so far for the past two months of 2023.
The abattoir has access to Angolan and Ghana’s market. Email: erastus@thevillager.
As Nam Engages in Beef-Cat Fights, Bots Is Making Beef Moves
