Present status and some problems of the slaughter houses in the Ryukyus (Department of Agriculture)

The livestock marketing methods in the Ryukyus are not operated satisfactorily. Butchers are taking multiple roles in the distribution of livestock products. That is, the butchers purchase live-hogs from producers, dress them at the slaughter house, and then directly sell the meat to consumers. The slaughter houses are the center of the hog transaction and occupy an important position in the local market. There are 31 slaughter houses of various sizes on the islands now : 27 in Okinawa Islands; 1 in Miyako; and 3 in Yaeyama. About 280,000 head of hogs were slaughtered there in 1970. It is often said that the existed slaughter houses hamper the efficient livestock marketing activities. However, no studies were made for them to the present time. The purpose of this study is to grasp the present status of the slaughter houses and to find out problems that need to be improved. From the analysis of the present slaughter houses, the following problems are found out : 1) Based on the number of hogs slaughtered per year, the number of slaughter houses in operation is large, and in general, most of them are very small in size and operated inefficiently. 2) There are too many butchers in slaughtering work and hog marketing. 3) Management of the small sized slaughter houses is not done successfully, because of a small number of hogs slaughtered and a small income. 4) Slaughter house facilities are very poor in general. With few exceptions, hogs are slaughtered under poor sanitary conditions. Sanitary conditions of the large scale slaughter houses are considered adequate and hog slaughtering facilities are properly maintained. However sanitary conditions of the small scale are far from being adequate. For improving such a situation, consideration should be given reducing the number of the slaughter houses and also the number of the butchers. A new meat center should be formed in main area by a consolidation of the present slaughter houses. The center will have cold storage and operate an auction market for the meat. Therefore, the former methods of livestock and meat transaction should be changed. The Okinawan people have not yet acquired the taste for chilled (frozen) pork and there is little demand for the product. Therefore, a consumer education on chilled (frozen) pork consuption should be initiated by the GRI. Timely market information on supply, demand, and prices will be provided by the center to every producers. This information will assist producers develop a more efficient production and marketing system and make it possible to adjust shipments of hogs, thus contributing to the stabilization of prices. The establishment of a new meat center can eliminate unfair transactions between the butchers and producers such as unfair grading, price discrimination, and other harmful practices of the butchers