By Deon Schlechter
WINDHOEK – A dispute over the payment of N$50 million for and ownership of Witvlei Meat’s final consignment of 350 tonnes of frozen prime Namibian beef to Norway is headed for that country’s high court.
The case will be in the Norwegian high court in the next seven days.
This dramatic new development follows after the high court in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled in favour of Witvlei Meat’s demand for a bank guarantee from Witvlei Meat’s 30 percent Norwegian shareholder, Nortura, for the full amount when Nortura’s agent NoriDane filed an urgent application with that court to take posession of the shipment on December 31, 2014 while it was waiting to be shipped to Norway.
The international court drama comes in the wake of Witvlei Meat shutting its doors last week and retrenching its workforce of 200 people due to the slashed Norway quota of 350 tonnes for 2015.
Confirming the long-standing relationship between Witvlei Meat and its Norwegian agent Noridane – a subsidiary of Nortura – has turned sour because of the dispute, chairperson of the Witvlei Meat Board Sidney Martin said Witvlei Meat’s total allocated consignment of 350 tonnes for 2015 has resulted in a fierce legal battle that will play out over the next few days in the high court in Oslo, Norway.
In an exclusive interview just after his return from a business trip to South America, Martin confirmed the dramatic events that unfolded last year when Witvlei Meat demanded from Nortura to pay them the same price it was paying to the only other Namibian beef exporter to Norway, Meatco.
Martin says Witvlei Meat noticed how NoriDane was consistently surpressing the price it pays to Witvlei Meat since the partnership was formed three years ago. At the same time, it was noticed that NoriDane was achieving much higher prices for Nortura from the beef from Meatco and that led to a Witvlei Meat investigation that uncovered the unfair and unexplainable treatment of Witvlei Meat by NoriDane.
“Witvlei Meat’s queries went unanswered afer we raised the red flag and when the court in The Hague granted Nortura ownership of the 350 tonnes on December 31, we immediately reacted and our laywers were successful with the appeal against the verdict and on January 5 it was ruled that Nortura pay us the N$50 million in two installments of some N$30 million and N$20 million respectively,” Martin explained.
Nortura and its agent NoriDane oppose this ruling of conditions for ownership and the case will be heard in the high court in Oslo within days. Martin made all correspondence regarding the dispute over the price difference and other related documents available to this newspaper, which also acquired the official notice by Octogon Actuaries & Consultants on January 21 in which it informed Nortura and NoriDane that it will now proceed to quantification of the loss suffered by Witvlei Meat (NOK 25 664 803, more than N$48 million) “allowing for interest and future contingencies as applicable”.
Martin says it’s a shame the now closed Witvlei Meat has to fight in a high court in Oslo for what is rightfully theirs.
“The experience of the past three years with Nortura has once again underlined the ruthlessness with which big agents like NoriDane for Nortura go about their business in Africa. Not only was Witvlei Meat dealt a low blow by NoriDane in terms of deliberate lower prices, but our own Minister of Trade and Industry Calle Schlettwein prepared the downfall of Witvlei Meat by going against a Cabinet Decision of 2010, changed the qualifying system for exports to Norway overnight and alllowed for a quota of 100 tonnes to Brukarros Meat Processors which he knew never qualified. Now he has created a monopoly with the help of Nortura and NoriDane and made Meatco the sole exporter of Namibian beef to Norway while some 800 residents of Witvlei have no income anymore.
“I’ve got news for all of them; NoriDane and Nortura will play the same game with Meatco after a while and in the long run the Namibian producer will suffer. Just like they are suffering now,” he concluded.
Yesterday it transpired Nortura will for the first time in three years not be represented directly at today’s all important stakeholders’ meeting of Witvlei Meat in Windhoek. Knud Gaugaard, senior adviser and spokesperson for Nortura, could not be reached on his cellphone for comment yesterday.