Hochfeld wins annual Meatco braai competition

The Hochfeld Farmers’ Association walked away as the winners of the annual Meatco National Braai Competition that was held this weekend at Bitterwasser. The 34th National Braai Competition was hosted by the Uhlenhorst Farmers’ Association. This was the fourth consecutive year that the braai took place in the south and Hochfeld finally managed to snatch it from the southern farmers’ associations. As this year’s champions, the Hochfeld Farmers’ Association not only has the honour of hosting next year’s National Braai Competition, but also received N$100 000 from Meatco. The Stampriet Farmers’ Association won second place in the Farmers’ Association category while third place went to Kaiserstraat Farmers’ Association. In the Social Teams category the winners were the ‘City Slickers’, followed by Voermeester in second place and the ‘Hippies’ in third place. The winners of the Social Teams category received a cash prize of N$10 000. A total of 12 teams took part in the Farmers’ Association category while nine social teams took part. For the first time a Junior Braai Competition was held this year and it was won by Rume Kotze and Diane De Lange. Martha Namundjebo-Tilahun, the chairperson of the Meatco Board of Directors, said Meatco has been around since 1980s and has been working with farmers for more than 30 years. “I am humbled to think that as an organisation, our involvement in the farming community spans generations, but not just with the national braai.” Tilahun said a lot of things have changed over the last 30 years, which includes Meatco’s business environment, the agriculture industry and Namibia as a country. “But one thing that remains the same is our vision, which is to act in the best interest of Meatco producers and the Namibian meat industry. This fundamental principle guides all our decisions and all our actions,” she said. Tilahun further said that while Meatco cannot guarantee that in the future it will be involved in the competition in the same manner that it is today, it can guarantee its commitment to Namibia’s meat industry. “We must change with our environment and this means trying new things. What we can guarantee, like we have been doing for the last few decades, is that we will continue to increase our efforts to help create a viable meat industry for the farmers today, as well as the farmers of tomorrow, and that also means trying new things,” she said.