A government minister has said viability of the cattle industry depends on the resuscitation of the Cold Storage Company (CSC) cattle finance scheme, which was the cornerstone of the cattle sector in Zimbabwe before the country embarked on its land redistribution programme. Addressing guests during a tour of the Bellevue Abattoir in Norton and Butcheries in Harare, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development (Livestock) Deputy Minister, Paddy Zhanda, said the restoration of the cattle finance scheme would provide farmers with long-term, low interest financing for cattle farming.“One of the issues that is confronting the livestock sector is the issue of finance. Associated with that is the cost structure of the unstructured nature of the financing model and the cost of finance. (While) the lack of long term finance with the current finance models, cattle producers cannot borrow money with the short term loans that are available on the market. The cattle finance scheme was a very generous scheme and the cornerstone of the cattle industry in this country,” Zhanda said.

“Zimbabwe has 5,3 million cattle. Out of that one would assume 1,5 million are the cows and heifers. Assuming 80 percent of these are calving, the nation should be having 1,2 million every year. But the nation is not achieving that because the calving rate is at 45 percent which is highly inefficient. Farmers are carrying animals that are not producing anything,” he said.

The CSC used to play a leading role in the processing and marketing of Zimbabwe’s beef since its inception in 1937 and the cattle finance scheme, for over 60 years, was the backbone of the industry, financing over 500 000 herd of cattle a year. However, the company has fallen on hard times owing to a number of challenges, chief among them being the underutilisation, failure to raise adequate working capital, cattle disease outbreaks, decline in commercial herd, huge foreign debt and a high staff turnover. From 1983 to 1987, CSC handled on average of about 500 000 cattle a year through the abattoirs and 250 000 head through the feedlots and cattle ranches and the cattle finance scheme financed about 600 000 head of cattle on commercial farms.

Total cattle numbers were about 2,7 million on commercial farms and five million in communal areas. Annual sales were at about 23 percent from the farms and three percent from the communal areas. The total annual kill was between 700 000 and 800 000 in a normal year and in 1984, a drought year, the figure was at 750 000 cattle.  Export sales were more than 25 500 tonnes with the European Union (EU) importing 9 000 tonnes, Angola 12 000 tonnes, Indian Ocean Islands 3 000 tonnes and Switzerland 1 500 tonnes.

However, the cattle company is a former shadow of itself with no substantial herd to talk of. The Marondera and Kadoma abattoirs are reportedly vandalised and defunct  and will require substantial investment to restore, while those in  Chinhoyi, Bulawayo and Masvingo are in operational condition but are not working, while the export licenses for the EU long lapsed and are unlikely to be regained any time soon because veterinary controls have collapsed.  In 1997 the cattle herd was about eight million, five million in communal areas and three million on commercial farms. Today, the communal herd is the largest communal herd but not for commercial purposes.
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