Animal health status faces challenges

Namibia's animal health status remains a critically important factor for the livestock industry and various challenges are still being experienced in this regard.

Namibia is an exporter of livestock and meat and is largely dependent on export markets, both international and in southern Africa.

"Should one positive case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) be identified for whatever reason in Namibia south of the veterinary cordon fence (VCF), all export markets will be closed overnight and the entire livestock industry (cattle, sheep, goats, etc) will come to a standstill with catastrophic economic consequences," chairperson of the Livestock Producers Organisation (LPO) of Namibia, Thinus Pretorius, said at the organisation’s annual congress last week.

Challenges to address

He said it is also crucial to improve the animal health status north of the VCF in order to benefit Namibia's entire meat industry.

"The seemingly uncontrollable outbreak of FMD in South Africa further increases the risk. Action steps to protect the border were implemented by the directorate of veterinary services and the Meat Board of Namibia."

He added that it is critically important that the Namibian cattle industry has an export abattoir.

"Meatco's losses for the last five years have been astronomical and totally unsustainable, and urgent changes will have to be made."

Pretorius, however, said that the LPO still considers a sustainable Meatco to be a critical pillar in the Namibian cattle industry to ensure stability and growth.

"We must therefore do everything in our power to ensure sustainability. The LPO's aim is to seek the best markets and prices for the benefit of its members."

Work together

He said that in 2020, the LPO, in collaboration with the Namib Mills Group, undertook a cattle value-chain study to determine the correct price that a cattle producer should get for his product.

This study was further expanded by a private grouping of producers, the Beef Value Chain Forum, who investigated the sustainability of an export abattoir.

A company called Savannah Beef Processors has since been established, and shares have been made available to producers.

"During 2020 and 2021, there was a lot of investment in the beef industry after the drought. Many heifers and tollies were held back, and even in 2021 the marketing of cattle was less than the total in 2020, and this shows us that a lot of herd building has taken place, and in 2022 the marketing will pick up. Prices are very good for both weaners at auctions and slaughter cattle at export abattoirs."

He said that policy reforms for the livestock value chain must be addressed to remove production constraints, maintain export quality, promote investments in product diversification and local value addition, and strengthen the resilience of livestock producers against climate change.

Positive aspects

Pretorius said it is necessary to improve the global competitiveness of Namibian livestock as economy of scale is one of the biggest challenges for livestock producers and makes them vulnerable.

He added that the small livestock marketing scheme has already been on ice for three years and farmers are busy investing and building herds.

"Producers are increasing production and a positive attitude is experienced."

However, he pointed out that the Namibian sheep producer is currently dependent on two markets in the sheep industry, and that is either live export to South Africa or the local Namibian market.

"The LPO and Hartlief therefore carried out an investigation into the viability of exporting mutton to bone-in markets in particular."

Price erosion threats

According to Pretorius, Europe is a bone-out market and has been inaccessible for the sheep industry to export meat.

He said that there is also concern about the drastic rise in agriculture's input costs and the impact this will have on production costs.

"This will erode the prices that livestock producers receive."

He said that the one thing that has become clear once again in a world where industries have been forced to their knees is that agriculture is standing strong, while everything collapses.

Pretorius said that due to the Covid-19 restrictions in 2021, the LPO held regional meetings for a second year.

"These were experienced very positively and, therefore, the LPO recommends to congress to make provision in the LPO constitution to alternate regional meetings and congress in Windhoek."