Need for pluralisation of the livestock auctioneering sector

ONE of the things that are always a challenge to livestock farmers is access to markets. There are various avenues through which farmers can sell their livestock and we have discussed these before but I will also mention them today for the sake of our conversation. Livestock farmers sell their animals to local butchery operators, local middlemen, auction sales if available or take directly to abattoirs in major cities if they have the means to.

The majority of livestock farmers who are the smallholder livestock farmers have no access to apex markets such as abattoir operators in major towns. They also have no access to commercial livestock auctions as these have limited reach.

Their only available avenue are the local middlemen and, on few occasions, the Rural District Council (RDC) auctions. Despite the RDCs having many cattle sale pens dotted across albeit in varying state of neglect, only a few RDCs actually organise and hold regular livestock auctions.

In fact, most RDCs now only do auctions for stray animals because they are compelled by the law to do so. Therefore, the only real and regular livestock auctions are held by only one existing commercial livestock auctioning company which I may not name for fear of litigation in case I rub them the wrong way. This commercial livestock auctioneering company is to my knowledge the only company offering commercial livestock auctions in some urban and rural centres.

However, it is important to note that this company also does not go far from the tarred road for its auctions, actually all their auction sale pens I know are along tarred roads and either just by the roadside or not more than five kilometres.

This means everyone else in the sticks is not covered unless if they can transport their animals to the nearest such auction sale pen. The other livestock auctioneers I know, in fact are two struggling public auctioneers who either cover one or two districts on their irregular sales.

This means the reminder of the districts are at the mercy of middlemen and local butchery operators who have limited buying capacity which they compensate by over depressing their buying price to the detriment of the farmer. There are also buying stations in some areas and buying agents for big abattoir operators and meat wholesalers in town. These agents also operate in a ruthless middlemen manner because they have no competition wherever they are and hence they can ride roughshod on farmers.

My submission therefore this week is that we need plurality of commercial livestock auctioneering companies so that we can increase both the reach and the competition for services being offered to livestock farmers. It baffles the mind why there is a de facto monopoly for commercial livestock auctioneers. What is stopping other players from going into commercial livestock auctions as well?

If the current commercial auctioneer is only content to service areas along the tarred roads, obviously being discouraged by the bad dirty roads into the interior of districts, it means Bulilima District which has no centimetre of a tarred road has all its livestock farmers not accessing competitive markets unless if they transport to the nearest sale point which for someone in Ndolwane area, is more than 100 kilometres.

If our roads are so deterrent to access better services maybe its about time powers that be, including local authorities consider prioritising their roads. I am aware that there is this unnecessary designation of roads into State roads, council roads and district development roads, something that I find not ideal because all those players are State actors.

So as a result of this designation of roads, one finds the RDC spending its allocation of road maintenance funds on some obscure inconsequential road while the major road is left unattended because it’s a “State” road!

Look how the roads are scaring away a very important market for livestock farmers and this is just one sector, who else is being driven away by the impassable roads? Be that as it may, it is my call that there is space for livestock actors to occupy in commercial livestock auctioneering and the more players move in and make this sector plural, the more vibrant the livestock industry becomes.-sundaynews.co.zw