A Chinese-owned slaughterhouse that cost US$4.5 million to build has opened in the southern Mozambican district of Panda, the Carta de Moçambique news website reports.

The  manager, Edson Peula, says the facility can process 120,000 tonnes of meat a year, and will begin by buying livestock locally before raising its own cattle in due course, according to a report posted on the website on Monday.

The report quotes Mozambican Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Celso Correia as saying at the opening ceremony that the facility is the second- largest of the three slaughterhouses in his country.

The establishment of the slaughterhouse was first mooted in 2018, and the facility will create new jobs, boost the supply of meat and eventually give Panda a 36,000-strong herd of cattle, the Carta de Moçambique website quotes Panda District Administrator Mércia Cossa as saying.