THE Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) says 2021 is the best beef marketing season underpinned by a good harvest after many years of drought induced food shortages.

In its latest beef sector market watch report, LMAC says the good rains the country received in the 2020-2021 season offer the best economic stimulus package to lift the livestock sector and beef sector out of a deep recession experienced over the last two years.

“Abundance of good quality veld   across the country is also expected to improve the condition score of beef cattle throughout the year and, therefore, also improve the quality of slaughter stock off veld,” said LMAC.

“Thus, favourable demand side factors and supply side factors are aligned to make 2021 beef marketing season the best season in as many years.”

The advisory council noted that good agricultural crop harvest means higher incomes for Zimbabwe in which the majority are full time or part time farmers.

It said the increase in Diaspora remittances is also expected to positively impact disposable incomes.

“Demand for beef and animal proteins in general increases with rising disposable income especially among low-income urban consumers,” reads the report.

Meanwhile, during the period under review LMAC reported that beef cattle cumulative slaughters were 68 225, an increase of 27 percent over the same period in 2020 but two percent down on the fourth quarter of last year.

The first quarter 2021 slaughters are the highest in terms of statistics since 2010.

“Abattoirs continue to report uncertainty in the business environment driven by Covid-19-related restrictions, currency uncertainty, increased levies and taxes and the outbreaks of diseases like foot and mouth disease and theileriosis being the major headwinds,” reads the report.

“Business conditions are expected to remain vulnerable to macro-economic and policy shocks for the rest of 2021.”

The lowest slaughter figure recorded was in the January, however, slaughters showed a significant increase of 35 percent with February reporting a cull of 24 855.

Slaughter figures for the months of February and March were above both the two and five-year average monthly slaughter for February and March respectively.

“The relatively high slaughters mask the difficulties that characterise the environment within which participants must operate where policies and laws can lack uniformity in application making business forecasting a haphazard affair,” said LMAC.

For the first quarter of the year to March 2021, Mashonaland West recorded the highest number of slaughters at monitored abattoirs, accounting for 18 percent of the national slaughter.

Mashonaland East, Matabeleland South and Masvingo were second, third and fourth respectively.

Manicaland had the lowest number of 341, reflective of the lack of monitoring of abattoirs and not the absence of cattle slaughters, said the report. — @okazunga