Windhoek
Buying stores or younger animals and putting them through the Backwards Integration Initiative (BII), from where Meatco can prepare these animals for slaughter and for the markets is the route being mooted by Meatco to improve marketing in the communal areas South of the Veterinary Cordon Fence (SVCF).
This in in view of major market concerns in terms of exports following the vaccination of cattle against Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) in the Northern Communal Areas (NCA), says Thokozile Mdlalose, Communication Officer at Meatco. Meatco will gear more of their services towards communal farmers in the future. Instead of waiting for farmers to approach its livestock procurement offices, Meatco will go into the communities, buy young animals, and select and sort them for the feedlot, farm or slaughter requirements. This will be done in alignment with Meatco’s Livestock Procurement strategies and vision.
Unlike commercial areas, challenges that communal areas face include lack of infrastructure and facilities. There are many cattle in communal areas but they are widely spread. Since this creates a challenge for Meatco to gather the animals, the need was identified to create assembly points and to make transport available to communal farmers, concludes Mdlalose.