Africa-Press – Namibia. PRIME minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila says the government is committed to promoting livestock production in areas north of the veterinary cordon fence for those areas to be eligible to access markets.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, who was on a two-day visit to Zambezi region, made these remarks at Katima Mulilo on Friday at the send-off of a 25,9-tonne meat consignment to Angola.
According to Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, areas north of the veterinary cordon fence are restricted from accessing conventional markets due to animal diseases. She said the government is committed to promoting development of the livestock value chain and facilitating access to markets.
“The commitment of the government regarding livestock development is to eliminate animal diseases, ensure improved breeding stock, promote resilience to drought by ensuring sustainable management of grazing and drought-resilient animals, feed production and promoting value addition. [The government is also committed to promoting the] use of public procurement to provide an uptake market for local communal areas meat products and eventually the removal of the cordon fence,” she said.
“It is pleasing that produce from the abattoir is accessing markets both here at home, including south of the cordon fence, and beyond our borders, with exports to Ghana and Angola. This is also in line with the African Union agenda to promote intra-Africa trade,” she said.
She added that the government is aware of the challenges the Katima Mulilo abattoir is faced with, especially the Kapano quarantine camp where a fire destroyed the facility and disrupted the supply of livestock to the abattoir.
“We are confident that the ongoing engagement to secure the facilities and to ensure cooperation with local communities will enable us to optimise the facility’s contribution to the efforts to develop the livestock value chain in the region. We call on all stakeholders to support the efforts of the government to ensure that the facility is secure and fully functional,” she said.
According to Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, the export consignment is a step forward in unlocking the value of the rural economy, optimising returns from investments and increasing participation in foreign trade.
Speaking at the same event, the manager of livestock procurement at Meatco, Thimotius Kativa, noted that the abattoir has the capacity to slaughter 110 head of cattle and debone 420 tonnes of meat per day.
He said between April and June this year Meatco paid N$8,9 million to 123 Zambezi region farmers, and slaughtered 1 162 head of cattle in the region.
According to Kativa, the buying price per head of cattle increased to N$7 700 this year, compared to about N$6 886 last year.
He said in addition to the Kapano quarantine challenge, Meatco lacked loading facilities to load cattle from villages to the quarantine camp, chillers have a limited capacity of 110 head of cattle per day, the cooling facility is ageing and there is an influx of meat products from south of the cordon fence.
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