Backyard Slaughter Of Livestock, Sale Of Meat Illegal

Slaughtering livestock in backyards and selling the meat is illegal.

This has been a problem the Fiji Meat Industry Board has had to grapple with for years.

Presenting the board’s 2015-2017 annual reports to the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs yesterday, chief executive officer Vimal Chand said the issue gave possible rise to Tuberculosis and Brucellosis.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and FMIB are enlightening farmers of hygienic slaughter and why meat should come through the abattoir,” Mr Chand said.

“We inspect, hygienically slaughter, check and verify meats coming in before it’s chilled and given to the customer.

“We still have a lot of illegal slaughter outside and illegal slaughter meat sale happening. You can’t slaughter in your backyard and sell. Biosecurity and the ministry are raising awareness on these.”

He said on average since 2011, they have slaughtered about 7500 cattle equating to 1800 tonnes per year, an average of 14,000 pigs which was 850 tonnes per year, 464 sheep’s which was 5.2 tonnes and 2259 goats which amounted to 33 tonnes.

Mr Chand said the average number of cattle they slaughtered per year was small because they had a lot of idle capacity.

“Out of two and a half days of slaughter, during the other two to three days the machines and capacity are idle,” he said.

“We need about 30,000 cattle’s coming through the abattoir to break even. The problem is the declining throughput.”

Responding to MP Inosi Kuridrani, Mr Chand said the board could not influence livestock production in Fiji because slaughtering was their core function.

He said the declining number of livestock coming through the abattoir was due to the big number of farmers engaged in subsistence farming compared to semi-commercial and commercial farming.

As a result, Government gave them a capital grant of $382,699.70 in the 2020/2021 Budget and $400,000 in the 2021/2022 Budget.

The funds have been used to upgrade the Nasinu and Vuda abattoirs.

Slaughter Costs:

• Cattle - 37cents per kg - dressed weight,
• 55c for pigs,
• 50c per kg for sheep, and
• 24c per kg for goats.

On-site inspection and weighing fee for independent Agriculture Staff:

• $1.38 per head for cattle’s,
• 92c per head for pigs, and
• 55c for sheep and goats.

The board is also in the process of getting Hazards Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Certification to enable meats slaughtered there to be sold to hotels.

The Nakasi abattoir will be fully certified by the end of 2022.

They are also considering deploying mobile slaughtering abattoirs for ease of service for farmers.

Most of the livestock that go to the abattoir are from North and Western Divisions.

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