Meatco turns to Africa for NCA lifeline (MW only)

The Meat Corporation of Namibia (Meatco) is banking on its Northern Communal Area subsidiary to serve the African market as it seeks to expand its services across the continent, while also deriving value for farmers located north of the veterinary cordon fence (VCF), its interim chief executive, Albertus Aochamub, said in an interview with Network Media Hub

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Aochamub said the focus would be on Angola and Ghana, while the company would also seek opportunities in Asian markets outside China.

"We should soon be in Ghana, Asia and Angola. And that's products you can take from the NCA company because the import regulations are not as stringent as the European Union (EU) or Norway. And just once you start selling into the rest of the African continent, it means our NCA operations could begin to show a positive picture," Aochamub said.

Meatco had an obligation to serve all farmers and not just those with agricultural activities south of the VCF, Aochamub said.

"Do we have an obligation as a publicly owned business to those farmers? Of course we do. And so a lot of these will not necessarily be run strictly on a commercial basis, but you will have to break even. And those breakeven numbers, we know what they are," he said.

Continuous improvement

To ensure there was a business case for Meatco, Aochamub said concerted efforts would have to be made to ensure the lead times were shortened between when cattle were procured and placed in Meatco's feedlots, up until the point where they were slaughter-ready for export to these markets.

"And we are the only ones for that public obligation. So we cannot be compared to anybody else in the market because it's comparing apples with lemons or something like that," he added.

To overcome the challenge, Meatco would also have to ensure its abattoirs in Eenhana in the Ohangwena Region, and its Outapi abattoir in the Omusati Region, would be brought up to a level where they operated efficiently and effectively.

State of NCA operations

"Eenhana is operational, but it is very small, it does 50 a day if you are going to push it.

"Outapi we cannot operate at the present. We took possession of it in April last year, but it is not operational because there are legacy debts close to a million, which the veterans that were operating have left, and those debts are mainly water, electricity and utilities associated with that abattoir. So we have to clear that first before you can operate it.

Another challenge was the distance between the abattoirs based north of the VCF and the planned opening of a Meatco processing plant in Ongwediva.

"The distance between... So we are finalising a processing plant in Ongwediva, and the assumption is that Outapi and Eenhana will feed that meat processing plant in Ongwediva. That's about more than 80 kilometres from both. So if you think about commercial sense, there is none.

"We will have to improve the places where we source livestock from, so that we have slaughter-ready animals to shorten the time it takes for us to derive any revenue from those. So those are... NCA companies have different operations. It is mainly a public obligation we have," Aochamub said.

Public obligation

Aochamub said there was potential to bring farmers north of the VCF into the value chain to gain benefit, while at the same time fulfilling its public obligation as a statutory body created by an act of Parliament.

"Unlike the private abattoirs, we have the upside that we can continue to operate from the northern communal areas with the existing abattoirs and maybe once Oshakati comes online, of course, operationally it means that we have bigger responsibilities, but it also means that from a risk mitigation, you're able to balance your throughput sourcing and then keep the operations going."

Meatco's NCA operations distributed 849 934 kilograms of beef valued at more than N$39.3 million during the 2023/2024 financial year.

It exported 117 632 kg to African countries, 18% of total distributions, of which the majority went to Angola (96 059 kg) and the rest to Ghana.

Furthermore, 52% of the beef was distributed locally in the NCA and 30% south of the VCF.