The chairman of Lagos State Butchers Association, Bamidele Alabi, says the lack of traceability of cattle being produced and consumed in the country is responsible for the nation’s red meat not being acceptable for export.

In an interview on Sunday in Lagos, Mr Alabi said the lack of history and background of cattle had been a major challenge confronting the red meat value chain.

Mr Alabi noted that most of the cattle slaughtered in the country comes from neighbouring countries Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.

He said that with the new proposed feedlot system by the Lagos State Government in Igbodu, Epe, the challenges would be addressed.

“But now, this initiative will encourage us too to have more and produce more to join what is already on ground.

“It is not that we can not meet our meat demand in Lagos state; we kill almost 3,000 herds of cattle daily, and by that, we get all the cattle from neighbouring states and countries.

“Now that the Lagos State Government says it wants us to have ranches and they have made land available, about 750 hectares of land will greatly impact the quality of meat we produce.

“We members of the Lagos State butchers association bought 50 hectares of land to rear our own cattle on the ranch,” he said.

Mr Alabi noted that cattle rearing would not be in the nomadic system, which was the norm before now.

He added that herders would now use the real international standard.

“We believe that the feedlot will improve the quality of meat being sold to the public because it is going to be reared and produced under a well-managed process.

“We believe that with this new system, we will give Lagos residents healthy cows that are even healthier than what we have now,” Mr Alabi assured. 

(NAN)