1.
GV Kenya cattle grazing (2 shots)
0.08

2.
SV Kenya Meat Commission Factory
0.13

3.
MV INTERIOR..Working on carcass (3 shots)
0.34

4.
CU & SMV Skinning and weighing carcass (2 shots)
0.48

5.
CU Cutting up meat (2 shots)
1.04

6.
CU Canning corned beef (4 shots)
1.36

7.
CU Labelling and packing (3 shots)
1.46

8.
CU & SV EXTERIOR..cattle grazing (3 shots)
1.55



Initials ES. 1600 ES. 1620


EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS TORY IS INCLUDED TO HELP FILL THE GAP OF AVAILABLE NEWSFILM IN THE EVENT OF THE SCHEDULED PILOT-STRIKE OF 19TH JUNE 1972.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Kenya beef producers are preparing themselves for an effort that will help to reduce the beef shortage in Europe, now running at one million tons and rising to a predicted one and a half million tons (metric tons) during the next eight years.

Africa is geographically and climactically well-suited to the production of beef. The continent has almost six times as much permanent grass and meadow-land as Argentina, which in 1970 produced 2,800,000 tons (metric tons) of beef. The whole of Africa in the same year produced only 1 1/2-million tons.

The major drawback in African beef production to date has been that of a failure to ensure adequate disease-control to comply with Europe's strict standards of hygiene. Most of Kenya's exporting, for example, has been to Arab countries, where controls are less stringent. Much canned beef is also exported, a product in which possibly harmful bacteria is relatively easily controlled.

Since a recent United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) meeting in Rome, however, Kenya's chances of entering the lucrative European market are greatly improved.

The meeting noted that, of all African countries, Kenya had made the greatest progress towards meeting conditions for exporting to Europe. A large disease-free zone had been created, and the country would be able to export to Europe within two or three years.

SYNOPSIS: Herds of cattle are a common sight on the vast grasslands of Kenya, where beef-production is one of the major industries..... Nearly 20-thousand tons of beef are processed every year by the factories of the Kenya Meat Commission, the largest share being taken by this plant on the Athi River near Nairobi. Here carcasses are skinned and boned in preparation for their sale as cut or canned beef.

Two-thirds of Kenya's beef-production is for export. Much going to Arab countries. But so far the country has been unable to enter that golden land of beef-exporters -- the lucrative European market. The shortage of beef in Europe is approaching crisis proportions, with steak rapidly becoming an expensive luxury. At first glance Africa as a whole is in a good position to take advantage of the rising European beef prices, having six times as much pastureland as Argentina -- at present Europe's main supplier........
.....The problem is one of disease-control. No African country has yet developed a disease-control programme stringent enough to satisfy the strict European health regulations.

Recently, however, Kenya's chances of helping to reduce Europe's beef shortage have greatly increased. A meeting of the United Nations Food an Agriculture Organisation in Rome note that, of all African countries, Kenya has made the greatest progress toward meeting conditions for exporting beef to Europe, and could within three years be helping to ease the shortage.