Botswana Meat Commission Livestock Beef products Canned Meat Ecco BMC 12-06-07

From a livestock procurement point of view, the BMC has had a year with a number of successes with the focus being on correct pricing and service delivery to our producers. Significant advances have been made on price with firstly the introduction of the P2.00 bonus payment in July 2008.This incentivized the production and planned delivery of the right type of cattle and contributed to the increased CDM. Then in December 2008, three significant developments placed BMC at the top of international prices for Prime grade cattle when it was decided to increase all prices by P2.00 per kilo. This was followed by the linking of the 0 and 2 tooth prices in effect allowing feeders the ability to feed to higher CDMs without the worry of cattle cutting teeth and being downgraded to a lower price. Again this should give significant CDM increases in 2009. It was also decided to move the export parity price (EPP) benchmark for lower grades from 250kg back to 200kg in order to become more competitive with the local market price for older cattle.

The Board has also given permission to start the development of Direct Cattle Purchase Scheme that will involve the setting up of contract feeders and contract growers and will source cattle on a liveweight basis. These increases and initiatives will put the BMC in a strong position in 2009 to attract the necessary cattle to increase our market share and deliver increased volumes of quality beef to the EU and our other trading areas. BMC has been proactive in regard to Producer Satisfaction and has developed several new services in 2008. The SMS pricing which is sent to farmers by cellphone weekly is proving a popular tool with all producers and we would urge that all producers take advantage of this free information service.

The Producer Handbook 2008/9 has been a great innovation and the BMC has printed and distributed some 10,000 copies to producers, DVS Officers and other interested parties and it has been widely accepted as the most significant cattle publication within Botswana for some years. We intend to make this an annual production with Producer Handbook 2009/10 planned for release in October 2009. The BMC now has 7 functioning District Offices which will now be used to implement the DCP Program. This gives BMC a position in the field and will enable us to compete for all cattle in the country ensuring the producer of the best possible prices.