WINDHOEK – With less than expected rainfall across Namibia, farmers are facing tough decisions regarding the slaughter of their animals. At the moment, many are bringing underage animals to abattoirs and Meatco is sending them back home, since complying with European Union (EU) regulations is essential.
In its latest newsletter, Meatco says it is crucial that all farmers obey Animal Welfare Regulations. This includes making sure the animal is the correct age when brought for slaughter. Since Meatco conforms to the highest quality standards and practices in the world, deviating from this could hamper the quality of meat products and potentially damage Namibia’s reputation, in the long run compromising returns for the producer. Following the recent launch of the master plan for the Meat Industry, clear objectives concerning the improvement of animal health and welfare as well as food safety, is a priority. For this reason, the responsibility also lies with producers to ensure they constantly improve and maintain the health status and welfare of their animals. With the environmental conditions being as tough as they are, Meatco is looking into ways on how it can potentially help. Meatco values its partnership with producers and encourage farmers to make timely provision for the prevailing drought conditions. “Together we must ensure that animals are healthy, the right age and that the meat is of a high standard,” the corporation says.
In the past Meatco’s slaughter slots were determined by other parties in the industry. However, after deciding to allocate producers their own slaughter slots, it had to develop a system to determine how these slots would be allocated and how preference would be given. This is how the merit system was born.
The merit system relies on the following:
1. Signing and fulfilling the contract;
2. Turning up for your slaughter slot; and
3. Distribution.
The change in application of the merit point applies to signing and fulfilling the contract. In the past Meatco penalised the producer on merit and also didn’t pay the contract premium to those who delivered more animals (more than 110% plus 36) than stipulated in the contract. Since Meatco has done away with this rule, producers will no longer be penalised on their merit point if they deliver more cattle. However, the contract premium will still be withdrawn if producers deliver more animals than agreed in the contract. This change is already in effect and has been backdated by three years, which means that most producers’ merit point has increased. When a producer signs a contract with Meatco and he turns up for his slaughter slot and delivers at least 90% of the cattle, his merit point will increase. If he can’t deliver the agreed number of animals to Meatco, his merit point will decrease.
Producers are therefore responsible for their own merit points. The merit point also is not coupled to how many slaughter animals he delivers but if he delivers at least 90% of the cattle he contracted to Meatco. There was a time when producers did not receive a delivery contract premium from Meatco. All Meatco did was assign him a slaughter slot. So there wasn’t a financial benefit for producers who signed a delivery contract with us. Two years ago Meatco decided to reintroduce the contract premium. At that stage the premium was N$1.50, which has since increased to N$2.50. So when producers sign a delivery contract with it and deliver at least 90% of the cattle, they get an additional N$2.50/kg on that animal. If the producer do not turn up or deliver at least 90% of the amount as stipulated in the contract, s/he won’t receive the N$2.50 contract delivery premium. In the future the merit point will play a bigger role, especially with the backwards integration projects that Meatco is busy developing.