Africa-Press – Namibia. REHO Meat Processors will be fully operational within a few weeks, delivering select beef, lamb, mutton, game, and Wagyu beef in increasing quantities to local and export markets.
Once construction work at the facility just south of Rehoboth is completed, about fifty cattle per week will be processed through the facility and made available on store shelves. The aim is to eventually process up to 150 cattle per day, with game and sheep also being processed at the facility.
The educator, businessman, and farmer, Mr. Sarel du Toit, who is also the chairman of the DAS Group, revealed more information about the Reho Meat Processors facility just south of Rehoboth during a farmer’s day at the Hartebeestloop Farm, owned by Dr. Joggie Briedenhann, on Saturday.
“The Namibian meat industry finds itself in a perfect storm with the prevailing drought, marketing pressures, challenges with Meatco as the national marketing organization, producer prices, the overall market environment, political undercurrents, restrictions on the import of raw materials, high production costs, and challenges with market development. We at DAS have seen an opportunity in these circumstances and have begun to follow the value chain on our own (financial) steam. We believe that by taking an approach where we can control the source (of production inputs), manage value addition, and be market-specific, there is good value in agriculture. Farming alone no longer holds much value.”
Mr. Du Toit has been involved in the livestock feed industry in Namibia since the early 1980s, after which he built up his business into a family enterprise with interests in Namibia, South Africa, and Australia. DAS specializes in commodity trading and has farming interests in Namibia.
While visitors to the farmer’s day at Hartebeestloop on Saturday were interested in learning more about Wagyu production as the purpose of the capital-intensive slaughterhouses at Rehoboth, Mr. Du Toit’s message was rather one of an alternative processing facility on the B2 route for quality beef and only 10% to 20% space for specialist Wagyu beef. This is obviously determined by grading (on a scale of 4-12 measuring marbling) and exceptional prices are earned on it. Some of Reho Meat Processors’ Wagyu and other meats are already available in the market through Hartlief’s and the Woermann Group.
With the emphasis on quality products from Reho Meat from the Mimosa farm and feedlot and other producers, control over the processing, cutting, and marketing of meat products, control over feed inputs, and management of the value chain, the DAS group is convinced that agricultural business remains the foundation that can help sustain the Namibian economy.
Saturday’s announcement of a major investment from own capital in one of the three or four meat processing facilities for Namibia by Mr. Du Toit, Dr. Briedenhann’s open and honest discussion of his management of his mega-farm in the Kalahari where drought threatens farming existence, and a motivational speech by former Springbok athlete, Henning Gericke, contributed significantly to a positive sentiment among farmers in the red dunes of the Kalahari.
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