Sekanyo Sulaiman chairman of Nsooba Slaughter House showing stamped meat.
By George Bukenya
The Kampala Metropolitan Butcher Association leadership is lamenting about the hardship they are now facing in their business since the quarantine guidelines imposed on the cattle rearing districts in the country.
They say that this has led to increase in the cost price of beef cattle due to the limited supply and this has greatly impacted on their level of profits something that is pushing some out of the business.
According to the chairman, Nsooba Slaughter House at Kalererwe, Kawempe Division, Sekanyo Sulaiman, there are many people in the country who delive their livelihood from the subsector either directly or indirectly and if it faces challenges they are negatively impact. Therefore, government through it relevant ministries should always plan a head to avoid losses and loss of jobs to its people.
He said that about 40 cattle keeping districts are now under Quarantine and this affects the steady supply of beef cattle leading to hiking of the prices from those that are still operating normally. He says that in his Slaughter House they used to slaughter between 60 -70 cattle and 100 over the weekend but the number has significantly reduced.
The prices have increased from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 per cattle and it can go beyond that depending on the size, while a kilogram is purchased between Shs. 13,000 and 13,500 for a dealer and to the final consumer it goes for 15,000 and 16,000 depending on the area.
“Quarantine can’t solve the challenge completely, there is a need for government and the players in the sector to come together and deliberate on amicable solutions which are everlasting.” Sekanyo said.
He further said, “Our meat is most delicious world over, people come from Europe and other parts of the world to enjoy it. Government should find everlasting solutions to the challenges affecting the sector in order to allow constant flow of the activities.”
The Association chairman Musa Ssenabulya said that the dealers are not specialists and they depend on scientists who normally overlook on certain issues due to lack of enough research, for instance on the issue of Kampala quarantine they didn’t consider the facts such as jobs, originality of supply of cows.
“ In the quashed quarantine dealers and consumers were caught unaware due to lack of consultation this impacted on all parties negatively, caused pressure and panic, some people where even hospitalized.’’ Ssenabulaya said.
He further said, “ the challenge has been around for some good time in many areas other than Kampala no much efforts have been made to curb such completely.’’
He said there are no farms in Kampala and those who are rearing cattle are using zero grazing and in case of disease outbreak it can easily be controlled and it couldn’t warrant putting a quarantine.
The chairman called on government to give meat dealers incentives like deep freezers, and other equipment that can be used in value addition to help them improve their business because even government can eventually reap big in form of taxes.
There are 8 doctors at Nsooba and due to the current challenge government promised to increase the number to 12.