22 Sep 2024

The much awaited construction of the state of the art Tsabong Multi-species Abattoir has successfully passed equipment commissioning stage and is now ready to take off.

Tsabong Multi-species Abattoir project engineer, Mr Ofentse Kgaogano said in an interview Friday that the mega facility, which is sitting on a three-hectare piece of land, was now complete, with cutting edge meat processing technology equipment ready for farmers to utilise.

He said different pieces of equipment such as the slaughter module, the reverse osmosis plant, the effluent treatment plant, the steamed generator, the blaster freezers (cold storage facilities), borehole connection, and a rendering plant were tested and commissioned last week.

“This week we are running trials for slaughtering. All activities are being run in conjunction with Botswana Meat Commission (BMC). We have engineers from South Africa to do skills transfer on the running of the effluent treatment plant. We also have mechanical engineers from Finland, where the original equipment manufacturers come from, who are testing equipment and are working with BMC on trial runs,” said Mr Kgaogano.

To prepare for the successful running of the abattoir he said a ‘change management strategy team’ was in place comprising of all relevant stakeholders which included the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Entrepreneurship, farmers’ associations,

Ministry Lands, Water and Sanitation, as well as Ministry of minerals and Energy to ensure a swift take off.

Meanwhile, Mr Kgaogano said the project was initially awarded to IPS Botswana Construction Company at a cost of P161 million in 2020. He said the cost however escalated due to unforeseen circumstances such as the outbreak of COVID-19 and project variations as construction unfolded.

“The project cost increased as a result of an increase in the price of internationally acquired equipment, technical and geotechnical changes faced during the course of construction, which resulted in an increase by the sum to P39 million to cover the costs.

Later on, a project memorandum was made to include initial abattoir operationalization, which includes procurement of a backup generator and borehole equipping at a cost of P81 million,” he said.

Tsabong District Agricultural coordinator, Ms Reginah Pebe said farmers had been facilitated to position themselves to harness business opportunities and value chains brought about by the construction of Tsabong Multispecies Abattoir. She said agricultural officers had conducted community mobilisation to ensure that farmers were prepared to benefit from opportunities that came with the construction of the abattoir.

Mr Pebe said farmers in the area had been encouraged to increase their flock and produce quality to be able to meet the demand and international export standards.

Furthermore, she said Lobu Small stock Farm offered cost effective trainings for farmers at P350 per week hence the need for pastoralists to make use of such facilities.

Ms Pebe said government continued to facilitate farmers to ensure that they were able to meet international livestock traceability requirements, adding that government launched Botswana Animal Information and Traceability System (BAITS) ear tags for small stock at Lobu. Small stock ear tag are priced at P20 and cattle tags cost P25.

Farmers are expected to use them as ear tags will be one of the requirements to be able to sell to the abattoir as a control measure of tracking animal history.

Ms Pebe further encouraged farmers to make use of government programmes such as Thuo Letlotlo to improve and increase their stock population. ENDS