Botswana Archives

Botswana Meat Commission Case Study

Beef Primal & Wholesale
Labotse, Botswana

Botswana's not-for-profit beef processing organisation

Beef Industry

Botswana | Africa

Multi-Site

Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) was established on the 24th December 1965, by an act of Parliament to promote the development of the country's beef and related products globally.

The first abattoir was opened in Lobatse with Maun and Francistown Abattoirs following in 1983 and 1989 respectively. The Maun Abattoir was closed indefinitely in 1996 due to shortage of cattle supply and re-opened in April 2010. The BMC has had a significant contribution to the development of the country over the years.

In the early years of Botswana’s development as an independent nation, beef export was the only foreign exchange earner. Although beef is no longer the largest earner of foreign exchange, it nonetheless remains important to the economy as it impacts the furfural population who rely on farming for their livelihood.

BMC's head office in Lobatse has an integrated complex that houses an Abattoir, deboning and cutting plant, cannery, rendering plant and tannery. An Emydex customer since December 2014, BMC implemented Emydex’s Packing Module that enables them to print a label in 14 languages.

What BMC Had To Say

“Storing primal labels with variable text means we only need to maintain a fraction of the labels we previously supported. The new Emydex system also enables printing of variable labels in ten languages, as well as font formatting... Printing speeds are good, the system is robust and hassle-free."

Billy Mauco, IT Manager, BMC

Challenge

New primal labelling requirements
High speed label printing
High Volume (600 cattle, 15,000 labels p.d)
Real-time Traceability reporting
Ability to print primal labels in 10 languages for export, including Greek and Arabic

Solution

Outcome

8 'compact' primal labeling stations
Back office management system hosted in Cloud
Printing labels in 10 languages, including Arabic and Greek
600 beef carcasses per day/15,000 pack labels
Flexibility to change label and reporting in-house
Main Emydex production system, Client PCs and packing stations deployed and maintained via Cloud