TANZANIA – Muafaka Butcheries Limited, a proprietor company of modern butcheries in Tanzania is planning to invest about US$600,000 (over 1.3bn TZS) in modern slaughterhouses targeting the export market.
IPP media reports the halal certified company has already secured a five-hectare plot in Pwani region where construction work of the abattoir will likely start before the end of this year or early next year.
“We have the largest number of cattle, goats, sheep and livestock in general in Africa but we can hardly export abroad because of our poor quality slaughter houses which don’t meet international standards,” said Mohamed Ahmed, founder and CEO of Muafaka Butcheries.
According to him, the abattoir will slaughter between 250 and 300 cattle heads every day for both the local and export market.
The company operates five modern butcheries in the commercial capital which slaughter up to 20 heads of cattle a day and is looking to exploit both the export and local market which is not well catered for.
The abattoir will target markets in Comoros, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey which are readily available but blocked by inability to meet international standards especially by local processing facilities.
Eyes on the export
Dar es Salaam’s slaughter houses produce between 800 and 1,000 cattle heads per day with the country having only two or three world class slaughter houses and beef processing factories.
This is attributed to traditional technologies used to slaughter the animals, because of their archaic crude technology used to slaughter the animals in addition to poor incentives and lack of knowledge.
“All my five butchers are modern meeting local and international standards because my ambition is to give customers the best,” he added.
His move comes after the government of Tanzania pledged to build modern abattoirs, to ensure meat slaughtered in the country meets the quality and standard of the external market.
In 2017, Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) moved to ban 26 out of 55 abattoirs for poor unhygienic conditions and lack of good infrastructures.
Tanzania’s Longido district council recently initiated the construction of US$2.19 million facility that will act as an abattoir as well as meat processing facility in accordance with the industrialization agenda.
