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

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Alabi said this in Lagos yesterday.

He said lack of history and background of cattle had been a major challenge confronting the red meat value chain.

Alabi, who noted that majority of the cattle slaughtered in the country are brought from Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroun, said with the new proposed feedlot system by the Lagos State Government in Epe, the challenges would be addressed.

According to him, with the new ranching system, we can tell the history of the cattle that we want to slaughter from birth to the time of slaughtering.

“Majority of the cattle we slaughter are from neighbouring countries because we don’t produce much in Nigeria.

“Even in the northern part, they don’t have much, as they buy cattle from Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Cameroun.

“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 cannot meet our meat demand in Lagos State, we kill almost 3,000 herds of cattle daily.

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

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

Alabi noted that cattle- earing was not going to be in the nomadic system, which was the norm before now, saying 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.

“They will be eating organic food and forage. There are space for us to plant the forage/grass that they will be consuming because they are all enclosed in the ranching system.

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