adminMhlupheki Dube
THIS past week I came face-to-face with farmers’ desperation with regards to livestock prices.
A meeting which was convened for the purpose of reviewing the foot and mouth disease situation with possibilities for negotiating for the opening of the two livestock auction centres in Bulawayo quickly degenerated into a mudsling, accusations and counter accusation scenario.
Farmers claimed that because of the closure of ZITF showgrounds and Khami auction pens abattoir operators are having a field day with farmers’ animals. They accused abattoirs of sitting around a table and conniving to drop livestock prices to ridiculous levels.
In their defence, buyers claimed that they are flooded with cattle coming everyday, some of them without booking at all.
The pouring of animals from all directions is creating a glut in the market, forcing prices to drop in compliance with the law of supply and demand. This is compounded by the veterinary foot and mouth control regulations that compels all animals brought to the abattoirs to be slaughtered within 24 hours.
The above scenario got me thinking and convinced that players in the beef value chain need to work with each other, not against each other.
Firstly there are four abattoirs in and around Bulawayo serving all the farmers that come in with animals from all directions.
Two of these abattoirs are small players which leaves only two to deal with most of the animals.
The question therefore is will it not be possible to regulate movement of animals into the abattoirs such that only booked animals are allowed to be ferried to the abattoirs?
This means before a movement permit is issued the department of veterinary services should check with the destination of the animal to verify if the farmer is booked or not.
This will ensure that abattoirs are receiving exactly only what they can effectively handle and subsequently there is no flooding of the market.
However, what I could not understand was why commercial farmers who we expect to be better informed in terms of market trends would want to be selling animals in months such as January.
Everyone who follows livestock prices knows that the first quarter of the year is not for selling as prices naturally plummet during this time due to a number of factors.
Admittedly this is a drought year which changes the equation slightly but surely commercial farmers cannot be seen wailing and screaming about prices during a season which they clearly know is a low prices season.
This is to be expected from smallholder communal farmers who are still more of livestock keepers than livestock farmers.
Commercial farmers are expected to have planned sales not distressed sales like communal farmers.
If commercial farmers start thinking and behaving like communal farmers then our agriculture is surely going to the dogs.
That having been said the question still remains as to how players can within the beef value chain work together, from the producers to the market ensuring that there are structured cattle sales so as to prevent stampede at the few abattoirs?
Uncontrolled and unstructured livestock market will see prices dropping to a dollar for commercials. Farmers are panicking because of the impending drought and the market is already saturating. In some areas communal livestock farmers have already started trading their animals for as low as three bags of 50kg maize meal!
The wave of animals pouring into the abattoirs is yet to come as even doubting Thomases begin to soften and awaken to the reality of the drought. A solution has to be found and it definitely cannot be found in missiles of accusations and counter accusations on pricing model.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter