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Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE Cold Storage Company (CSC) will no longer import livestock for slaughter as the country has enough cattle, a senior official said yesterday.In 2011, CSC and the Botswana Meat Commission entered into a livestock slaughter deal that was expected to see more than 60,000 animals being slaughtered per year over the last two years.
Agriculture, Mechanisation, and Irrigation Deputy Minister Paddy Zhanda, who is responsible for livestock, told Business Chronicle that with the national herd at more than 5,3 million beasts, it was not necessary for Zimbabwe to import livestock for slaughter at CSC.
“I don’t think there is any need for the country to import livestock as the country has enough beasts for slaughter at CSC. We have more than what Botswana or Namibia has,” said Zhanda.
“CSC entered into a livestock slaughter deal with Botswana as a way of assisting that country to address the problems it had.
“As far as we are concerned, I do don’t think we will have to import livestock for slaughter at CSC,” he said.
CSC chief executive officer Ngoni Chinogaramombe could not be reached for a comment at the time of going to print yesterday.
Under the first phase of the deal, CSC slaughtered more than 20,000 cattle from the foot and mouth infested Zone VI in Botswana, which is along the border with Zimbabwe, to curb the spread of the disease.
Although the livestock was coming from a foot- and-mouth infested area, CSC denied reports in some sections of the media that the livestock were diseased saying there was no way it could do so as the deal was a government-to-government project.
The second phase of the slaughter deal allowed the country’s largest meat processor and marketer to slaughter cattle from Zone II, which was not foot-and- mouth infested.
Due to successive droughts Zimbabwe experienced over the years, the national herd depleted to below five million prompting the government and other stakeholders in the livestock sector to implement restocking programmes aimed at improving the national herd.
As a result of improved national herd among other factors, beef price on the market has generally remained stable although the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe in its cost of living price review for July indicated that beef price increased by 31 cents to $4,30 a kilogramme from $3,99 a kg in June.
Online Reporter