|
|
Namibia: MEATCO Takes in More Slaughter Cattle
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Namibian (Windhoek)
15 April 2008
Posted to the web 15 April 2008
Windhoek
MEATCO will take in more cattle for slaughter from this week onwards than the numbers agreed in contracts with farmers.
Producers requested Meatco to open the contract ceiling to allow more cattle to be sold for slaughter. Given this request, Meatco's board of directors and senior management has decided to open the contract ceiling for the year 2008 starting yesterday. Last year's drought made planning difficult for Meatco and farmers alike. This was further aggravated by late rains that, in many parts of the country, only started in February this year, according to the latest newsletter of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU).
All cattle delivered above agreed numbers per contract will now qualify for the contract premium of N$0.80 per kilogramme of slaughter weight. "However, producers must still deliver 90 per cent of their contract numbers to qualify for this premium," the NAU newsletter said. Payment of that premium will start from May as producers reach 90 per cent of contracted cattle numbers. Meanwhile, due to a shortage in slaughter cattle locally, Meatco has decided to increase the price paid for all over-fat grades.
This is valid from Monday, April 14 until Friday, May 30. Since March 1, over-fat grades had received only 90 per cent of the price of medium-fat grades. Due to the higher demand for fat animals, Meatco decided to pay 98 per cent of medium prices to producers.
In practice this means the following: the current price for medium grades (C1 to C4) for the week April 7 to 11 is N$22.92 and if Meatco pays 98 per cent of it, the producer receives N$22.46 for grades C5 to C6. This is more than an N$1 increase in the current price of over-fat grades of N$21.07 and a Free Range premium of 10c per kilo. With the fast developing Free Range concept that Meatco introduced in 2007, it became imperative that Meatco obtains the maximum number of producers to complete and maintain the declaration forms for sales of FR meat to the Woolworths supermarket chain. It is the strategy of Meatco to develop the unique characteristics of Namibian meat into premium earning strengths.
Woolworths is only the first step in expanding the Free Range concept to other markets. Within the context of the total current requirement of meat forecasts for the year and the anticipated premium to be earned, it is calculated that Meatco can pay an additional 10c per kilo slaughtering premium on all healthy cattle.
This applies for cattle delivered by producers who have signed a declaration form. In order to qualify for this, a declaration form must accompany every cattle load. To simplify the issue of signing a declaration form for every load, Meatco is finalising the incorporation of this declaration form into Meatco's slaughter advice.
|
This premium has been in force since Monday, April 14 2008.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
