PANAJI
The abattoir of the State-owned Goa Meat Complex Limited in Usgaon slaughters animals at a miniscule fraction of its capacity, producing under one tonne of meat on an average which accounts for just 4% of the State’s daily requirement.
“The quantity of meat generated per day at Goa Meat Complex is nearly 900 Kgs/day, approximately,” Animal Husbandary Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar told the Goa legislative assembly, adding that is insufficient to meet the State’s daily requirements which he said is roughly 20-25 tonnes.
Halarnkar made the statement in a written reply to a starred question tabled by Independent legislator from Bicholim Dr Chandrakant Shetye who had sought to know how many animals were slaughtered at the GMCL’s abattoir in Usgao.
Having a state-of-the-art abattoir with its facilities certified and approved by several beef-importer countries in Europe and the Middle East, the GMCL has had a chequered history since the 1990s, mired as it was in controversies and scams governed by a management comprising of a BoD usually packed with political appointees.
The facility had a breakdown in 2017 and was shut down for four years until reopened for operations only July of the Covid-19 pandemic hit 2021. Since then it has never utilized its full potential and is functioning at less than a tenth of its capacity, slaughtering on an average about 10 animals daily.
According to Halarnkar’s reply, the GMCL’s abattoir achieved a peak daily output of 69 animals slaughtered only once since it restarted operations in July 2021 on April 22 last year.
The GMCL does not trade and only provides the service of slaughtering animals. Goa’s meat traders and their representative bodies, notably Mapusa-based Quraishi Meat Traders’ Association get the certified animal for slaughter either from Belagavi animal market or others in neighbouring Maharashtra.
Bullocks, he buffaloes and she buffaloes are slaughtered at the GMCL factory, the answer furnished by Halarnkar said.
However, presently and since January 1, 2022, only buffaloes arriving from Kholapur district of Maharashtra are slaughtered, he added.
In October last year, not a single animal was slaughtered at the Usgao abattoir reportedly due to the ban imposed by the Goa government on import of bovine animals due to the ‘lumpy skin’ disease outbreak.
In the following month in November too, the situation did not return to normalcy and only 55 animals were slaughtered despite the GMCL entering into a tripartite agreement with the Quraishi Meat Traders’ Association and Hubbali-based Sunface Agro Foods Private Limited.
The deal was to have at least 50 animals slaughtered daily so the factory can run at full capacity for a single shift but till date that target has been achieved just twice on June 29 and 30 this year when 61 and 49 animals were slaughtered respectively.
For many middle class Goan households of the minority Christian and Muslim communities, beef has traditionally been a common dish on lunch and dinner tables, owing to easy availability and relatively cheaper price than other meats like poultry, mutton and pork.
However, over the last two decades, the controversy and push back over the ban on cow slaughter, sometimes violent, by the Hindu right wing has disrupted supplies and its costs are now second only to mutton.
The demand from the tourism industry too has contributed to the rising prices of the meat.
