Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development permanent secretary Obert Jiri has revealed a downturn in the beef segment owing to drought.
For the 2023/24 agricultural period, the country suffered from an El Niño-induced drought, shrinking drinking and food sources for livestock.
El Niño is a naturally occurring phenomenon that emerges when surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean increase.
Hence, it impacts global circulation patterns, resulting in drought conditions often experienced in southern Africa, while just to the north in East Africa, El Niño years tend to be unusually wet.
“Of course, other interventions related to finance and VAT [value-added tax] issues have also seen us draw back a bit,” Jiri said in an interview with NewsDay Business.
“The downturn in our beef sector is particularly concerning. We haven’t seen much growth in the pig sector, although there are some positive developments.”
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Beef is one of the most consumed meats in Zimbabwe and is pricey for consumers.
Despite this downturn, Jiri said that the country was still on course to achieve a US$3,5 billion livestock sector by year-end.
In response to these livestock challenges, Jiri said the government was stepping up its efforts to combat health issues affecting livestock.
He revealed that this included setting up a dedicated veterinary department actively addressing bacterial and tick-borne diseases.
“We have a dedicated directorate that handles livestock health issues within the veterinary department. We are actively combating bacterial and tick-borne diseases,” Jiri said.
“We also have our own internal successes, such as the Bolivar vaccine that we produced to counter January disease, along with other vaccines for various diseases, particularly in the beef sector.”
He continued: “I think the drought really hit us hard, so we didn’t grow as much as we anticipated. In various sub-sectors of the livestock sector, we didn’t grow as much as expected.”
He said that despite the challenges, there was growth in the poultry and dairy sectors which was contributing to the economy.