PANJIM: Quraishi’s Meat Traders Association of Goa (QMTAG) on Friday said the State has been facing an acute shortage of beef with supplies being cut to half of what is required ever since the State’s sole abattoir – Goa Meat Complex (GMC) – shut operations in October last year.
“The actual requirement of beef in Goa is to the tune of 20-25 tonnes per day, which can be supplied only if government-run abattoir starts functioning,” QMTAG president Manna Bepari told media persons.
He said that beef traders are not able to slaughter animals at the meat complex and have to import the meat from neighbouring Karnataka to keep the trade going. “The traders import only 10-12 tonnes of beef every day from Karnataka due to logistical issues. That does not fulfill the market requirements, forcing us to shut our shops by afternoon,” he said.
The association has around 70 traders registered with it, who have been traditionally dealing with the supply of beef.
Bepari said that the tourism industry needs beef as part of their regular ingredient for their restaurants, but the supplies dry out in the morning itself. He said GMC has been out of order since October last year, and attempts to get it functional have borne no fruits.
“The GMC yesterday asked us to bring animals to slaughter as they had purchased a new stunning gun which is part of the slaughtering protocol. But when we got the properly certified animals to slaughter, we were told that the stunning gun has developed a technical snag. We could not slaughter the animals and they had to be taken back,” Bepari said.
The traders allege that NGOs working in the field of cow protection are unnecessarily harassing them, though the animals are purchased with proper certification, including anti-mortem formalities.
Herald in its Friday edition had reported that as per RTI information, the meat is operating without permission since 2014. NGO – Animal Welfare Board – through an RTI revealed that the meat complex has no factory licence from Factories and Boilers since 2014 and also has no valid consent to operate from the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB). The NGO has approached Court for filing FIR against the meat complex.
