Meatco outlines its plan with communal producers
At the meeting, Meatco presented three options under which it aims to conduct business with communal producers sustainably going forward. The basis of all three options is to form a contractual beneficial partnership with the marketing structures in the communal areas in order to develop, capacitate and empower communal marketing structures to be relevant within their own communities.
According to Meatco’s Manager: Livestock Procurement: Communal, Patrick Liebenberg, the benefits of animals from communal areas should go directly to the producers and the structures organised from within these areas.
“Communal farmers are important to the entire cattle value chain that should be taken into account from the initial purchasing of animals. The magnitude of communal farmers is just massive and it needs to be coordinated properly. Therefore, farmers and Meatco must take each other’s hands and meet each other halfway. More so, when it come to the choice between the two production systems that of weaner or oxen,” Liebenberg said.
In response, the two farmers unions concluded that they would take the options presented and deliberate on them further, and thereafter seek an audience with Meatco before October 2019. This is after they have done a “SWOT Analysis” of all the options and decided on the most beneficial and practical one for the members they represent.
The meeting was entirely an open conversation centred on how Meatco and the Namibian communal producers can take each other’s hands and move towards a common goal. Furthermore, Meatco outlined and established the significant value communal producers can add to the Meatco business model through the Meatco Foundation. It also considered how this could be realised by keeping Meatco’s doors open and communal farmers providing adequate numbers of cattle for the coming financial year (2020/21), taking into consideration the current persistent drought situation.
