The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
FOLLOWING my article on beef producer prices recently and how livestock farmers are getting the shortest end of the stick, I had an overflow of feedback from farmers.
Most of the responses were complaints but only a few offered solutions. One suggested solution was from a female livestock farmer who was moved by the beef producer price issue describing the deal they are getting from buyers as “either cheating us or choking us to death like George Floyd”.
She said farmers must unite and set up warehouses for meat wholesaling. The idea being that farmers will slaughter their animals at the available abattoirs then warehouse the meat in a cold chain facility as they sell directly to big chain supermarkets and butcheries.
This sounds like a very plausible idea until you throw in the well documented disdain for joint venture or co-operative practices by our people. Our people never seem comfortable with joint venture enterprises or co-operatives, to the effect that you can almost fail to name one such venture that has ever seen the light of the day.
In fact, in some social groups, this idea has been thrown in several times and in all instances it has generated more heat and less light. Your typical all froth but no beer scenario. The fundamental question therefore, will be, what will it take for livestock farmers to either unionise or congregate against a common enemy, in this case poor producer prices? Why is it difficult for farmers to speak with one solid voice or even to act in one bold common stance?
I am aware that one of the large farming input retail outlets in the country used to be called Farmers’ Cop, meaning Farmers Co-operative. I suspect that this probably began as a co-operative of a group of farmers and grew into the giant business that it is today.
Why is it difficult for a co-operative or joint venture of livestock farmers to run an abattoir and meat wholesaling concern? I have no answers to these questions but I suspect my colleague Mr Wiston Babbage will probably say, it’s because livestock farmers are not willing to be members of a farmers’ union so that they can give their union teeth to bite.
Are we as farmers unionised so that we can sit down and solidify our cause into one rallying point? How many of our big time and small time players in the livestock value chain are members of a farmers union? My guess is that we may not find many of our established livestock farmers in the structures or even leadership of a farmers’ union, yet we expect someone who either knows very little about our industry or has no investment at all in that industry, to fight and champion our cause.
My suspicion is that the commercial farmers’ union used to be a respected voice in the farming sector and corridors of power because commercial farmers were willing to put their skin into the survival and life of that union. How many of our livestock farmers are willing to invest in a farmers’ union with the aim of reaping an effective representation on issues of policy and business?
My submission therefore is that livestock farmers need to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee and start to put a skin into a process that protects and champion their interest. Things do not just happen on their own, they are made to happen. We need to drive critical processes within the livestock value chain.
I see no reason why a fast food chicken and chips joint will be allowed to sell their product in hard currency as if they are selling an essential service yet cattle farmers still cannot sell in that currency. These are the probing issues that farmers through a solid member driven structure should be asking to the relevant authorities.
Livestock farmers of this country, unite and start to fight your own battles to better your operating environment. I meet a lot of farmers mourning on a number of operational issues and when you ask whether they have pushed this through their union, you discover they do not belong to any union but still want to benefit from the fighting effort of these unions.
It’s parasitic, you want to suck blood from which you have no contribution what so ever. I move therefore in this platform that farmers need to be unionised or be in some co-operative of some sort for them to be able to champion their own cause. Lone fighters will never help this industry, hence the perpetual mourning on the same issues.
Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
Feedback [email protected]/ cell 0772851275.
