CEO of Meatco, Adv Vekuii Rukoro, met farmers in the Otjozondjupa and Kunene region recently. This is part of his strategy to interact with farmers and to empower them with information on how to best market their animals to Meatco. This year’s theme is aimed at shortening the supply chain of cattle streams to Meatco, which will enable farmers to fully benefit from the company and its producer prices, says communication officer at Meatco, Thokozile Mdlalose. The first meeting took place at Ongongoro in the Okakarara Constituency and the second meetings took place in Erwee and Khorixas. It was also attended by the Executive: Policy Innovations, Stakeholder Relations and Corporate Affairs, Vehaka Tjimune and the Communication team.
At this meeting, Rukoro introduced farmers to Meatco’s marketing options, which can help elevate communal farming to commercial standards. Rukoro said the idea of doing communal visits was to improve the standards of communal farming to match the benefits that commercial farmers enjoy at Meatco. He stressed that: “South Africa has implemented new rules with regards to imports which are very strict, making it difficult for the Namibian communal farmer to market to that country”. In this vein Rukoro shared with farmers the plans and progress surrounding the feedlot construction at Kombat and in Gobabis, which are intended to improve farming mechanisms of both communal and commercial producers.
Communal producers received insightful information on how they could shorten the supply chain mechanisms when marketing their livestock. They were also encouraged to adopt new ways of managing their grazing areas, and to apply innovative farming methods in this challenging time of climate change.
Other regions the CEO is visiting later this year are Ohangwena, Omaheke, Erongo, Zambezi (Katima) and Khomas.
“Now we know why Meatco does not prefer low grade cattle,” farmers said. They added that the community would like to see Meatco construct a feedlot in their constituency, as grazing land remains a challenge.