African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 860: Chapter 164: Animal Husbandry

Speaking of the wildlife in Mozambique, there are certainly more than in any place in East Africa. Until now, the East African Defense Army and militias are still conducting a ”great cleansing” in the area.

Moreover, before there’s a major change in the population of Mozambique, this problem is unlikely to be solved effectively. After a round of culling, they quickly increase again, resulting in East Africa’s income from ivory and leather increasing significantly.

”Mayor Val, we plan to rest nearby your town for one night. Do you have any good places to recommend?” Launis asked.

Val thought carefully and said, ”We do have cattle sheds in our town, but they are too small for your needs. As for open spaces, there are none within the town. If you don’t mind, you can rest on the grasslands to the south of the town. We can arrange decent accommodation for personnel, but you have too many cattle.”

Launis asked, ”Have you seen any wild animals nearby your town recently?”

Val shook his head and said, ”In the past two or three years, we haven’t seen any. They might have been around before, but now they’re all gone, wiped out completely. You don’t need to worry about the lands to the south of our town. It used to be a temporary military camp for a cavalry unit moving south a couple of years back. They had many horses, so they built several camps in the south. You can stay there, although it’s been abandoned and needs some tidying up.”

This was a pleasant surprise for Launis. This abandoned military camp was likely a product of the South African War, possibly a former cavalry regiment’s camp, sufficient to accommodate the cattle Launis was escorting.

What’s most precious is that the abandoned houses there are still usable. Though they might be overgrown now, they’re definitely better than pitching tents temporarily.

After expressing some words of gratitude, Launis led the team toward the abandoned military camp.

The abandoned camp near Marling Town is not small, it even has stables, making Launis even more delighted. After inspecting the quality, Launis was reassured that it could fully accommodate the cattle.

This abandoned camp had actually been used for less than three months, and most buildings were intact, especially with the South African War not long ago.

However, as Launis expected, it’s overgrown now. But for long-time cowboys used to eating and sleeping on the prairie, it’s perfectly satisfactory.

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Teams like Launis’s, exporting livestock to Mozambique, are not uncommon. Currently, East Africa’s livestock industry is quite developed, almost comparable to the major pastoral countries in America.

However, due to the short history of development, East Africa’s livestock is mainly used for domestic infrastructure, so meat exports on the international market are not that substantial.

The country with the fastest-growing livestock industry in recent years has to be Argentina, backed by British investments and their massive market. Argentina’s livestock industry is even somewhat catching up with the United States.

This also explains one reason for the early confrontation between Argentina and the United States, as they have a huge conflict of interest, especially in livestock.

During Argentina’s most prosperous era, all of Europe and the Commonwealth were its beef markets, making it a high-income country.

Of course, this may not be without British intervention. Since the United States gained independence, Britain has always wanted to support a country in America to balance the United States. Brazil was clearly not suited for this role, but Argentina, at the southern end of America, was a place the Americans couldn’t easily reach.

Of course, Argentina and the United States were at odds early on. When Argentina and Britain clashed in the Falkland Islands (Malta), Argentina tried to invoke the ”Monroe Doctrine” to leverage American power to make Britain back down, but the United States played dead, leaving Argentina displeased, realizing the ”Monroe Doctrine” was just an empty slogan!

In that regard, East Africa, also an emerging pastoral power, has fewer conflicts because East Africa’s livestock products in the international market are not large and are concentrated in the German Region.

Moreover, East Africa’s quality falls slightly short, especially with the northern ranches focusing on quantity. To break the deadlock, it can only wait for South Africa’s livestock industry to develop.

Luckily, the rapid population growth in East Africa translates into a market, and the domestic market is not yet saturated, absorbing much of the excess capacity.

Countries like Argentina, with a small population, are actually at great risk. Once British support wanes, Argentina’s livestock industry will face a devastating blow due to its extreme dependence on the international market.

The United States on this front can be confident, as its beef consumption market is the largest in the world, and even if other countries compete, tariffs can protect the domestic market.

East Africa’s economy lags behind the United States, but its per capita income is considered mid-level worldwide, with significant meat consumption capacity, while East Africa’s construction demands are vast. In the absence of widespread mechanical adoption, livestock becomes an essential substitute.

Especially in agriculture, East Africa’s demand for draught cattle is tremendous, and its large-scale construction projects require these livestock for labor temporarily.

Take Shao Kui Town’s First State Farm in Mozambique, with only a dozen tractors, clearly insufficient, while East Africa’s tractor production is limited, inadequate for nationwide farms and plantations. Therefore, the significance of livestock becomes evident.

As for Black people, while they are also very cheap, East Africa cannot fully rely on them for construction, as East Africa’s national policy ultimately aims for the ”zeroing” of Indigenous people.

Of course, while East Africa’s pastoral industry hasn’t yet shown its advantage in the international market, it doesn’t mean it can’t make significant strides in the future.

In recent years, with the advancement of electrical technology and East Africa being a pioneer in cold storage technology, thanks should go to Linde, the general manager of the Heixinggen Electric Company and the inventor of the world’s first refrigerator.

With the push from Linde and other technicians, East Africa maintains a leading position in cold storage and preservation technology.

Currently, some of East Africa’s merchant ships have already begun cold storage constructions, and East Africa is actively promoting this.

After all, East Africa is a tropical region, and the importance of technology products like refrigerators is self-evident. Along with many East African fruits and vegetables mainly shipped to Europe, the development of cold fresh technology naturally boosts East African exports.

At the same time, other sectors in East Africa demand cold storage technology immensely, such as hospitals, where many medicines need cold storage.

A typical example is snake venom serum, as venomous snakes are abundant in East Africa, and the promotion of cold storage ensures remote hospitals in East Africa can treat injured patients.

In the future, to push East African dairy and meat exports, cold fresh technologies will be indispensable weapons, so with technological support, the future of East Africa’s livestock exports looks quite promising.

However, the biggest challenge facing East Africa’s livestock industry remains a severe lack of technical accumulation, especially in species hybridization breeding. Developing livestock breeds suitable for East Africa’s climate still requires time.

And this will take time to build up and is not something East Africa can change in the short term. But with the ensuing talent boom, East Africa can strive to address this in the future.