The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) will start selling beef to the lucrative market in China from October 2019, APA learnt here Friday.
Botswana has all along relied on the European Union market for beef exports but according to BMC spokesperson Brian Dioka, the expected foray into the massive Chinese market is part of the commission’s strategy of widening its footprint beyond the EU and Norway.
He said BMC is shifting focus from relying on single market environments so as to access more markets with stable economic growth such as Middle East, Russia and Asia.
“The Botswana-China beef deal has been sealed. BMC is ready to export beef to the Chinese market by October,” Dioka said.
He said part of the 40,000 tonnes of beef that BMC currently exports to South Africa annually “will be diverted to China with more cattle to be slaughtered as well.”
The official expressed optimism that the deal with China would held BMC to return to profitability after running under losses for quite some time.
KO/jn/APA