The management of the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) has been urged to make swift decisions and tap on the huge market for meat products in the East African region.
Addressing the press after making a two-hour tour at the Athi River facility on Monday, Acting Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Adan Mohamed said though the operations were on course, the firm's production was still below expected capacities and standards.
"I have visited the plant to see progress made since the government offered it financial support. Even though some progress in operation and production has been made, we are not yet there," said Mohamed.
Mohamed said the ministry is doing everything to ensure that the plant's operations and capacities are enhanced to required standards to enable it slaughter at least 400 cattle and 1,600 sheep and goats in each single day.
He said the firm was not effectively manufacturing corned meat due to limited supply of livestock thereby failing to meet the supply demand both locally and internationally.
"We need to start getting more supplies of livestock to boost conned meat processing to supply both local and international markets due to high demand. Our armed forces and National Youth Service for instance consume conned meat in large quantities, we therefore need to take advantage of the high demand and readily available markets," said Mohamed.
Mohamed said the company had no pending debts saying that all the supplies had been paid for and adequate money was available in the firm's bank account to effectively keep it running.
He said decision making in the commission's board was a problem due to divergent views and opinions hence a draw back to the company's growth and productivity.
"The best way of improving productivity takes time, there are divergent views among the company's board members which is a draw back to the company's speedy growth," said Mohamed.
The CS said some of the board members wanted the plant to be repaired as others had the opinion that it is very old and therefore a new state of art facility needed to be constructed to replace the existing one for efficiency and improved productivity.
Mohamed said the board is still contemplating on whether to renovate the existing plant or construct a new modern one from the scratch.
He however expressed his confidence and optimism in the company's management stating that it had completely settled workers issues by settling all their pending wages, salaries and gratuity to end a stalemate that had been experienced.
Mohammed said the board was working on various strategies to ensure the company's efficiency through improved relationships with livestock suppliers and staff programmes.
He was accompanied with the Kenya Meat Commission's chairman Taraiya Ole Kores and Acting Commissioner James Tendwa.
Kores said the commission had engaged a consultant to help in developing a model for staff rationalisation and production adjustment.
The Government in its 2015-16 Budget allocated Sh600 million for the commission’s revival.