Harare — The Cold Storage Company has clinched a US$550 000 deal to export goat meat and beef to Angola, as the country forges ahead with exploring new international markets in line with the country's economic revival programme.

In an interview on Tuesday, CSC chief executive Mr Ngoni Chinogaramombe said the company received a trial order of 25 tonnes of goat meat worth US$55 000 and beef valued at US$500 000 from the southern African country.

He said the CSC would rope in farmers to assist in meeting the quota since it lacks the capacity to raise the required amount to procure the goats on its own.

"We are mobilising farmers to export the goat meat through us as it is problematic for CSC to meet the quota due to limited funding," he said.

He said the meat processor would begin mobilising farmers at the end of this month, adding that once farmers agreed to the price offered by the Angolan market CSC would then confirm the order.

"If they are happy with the price we will slaughter the goats at our export-approved abattoirs," he said, adding the company was in the process of sourcing funds from banks to enable it to meet the export order.

"We are working on it and by end of this month we should be able to send the first order of 25 tonnes of beef," he said.

Mr Chinogaramombe noted that the country did not have a formalised system of marketing goats, and urged farmers to start rearing the animals for export.

"There is a good export market for goat meat and we encourage farmers to rear more goats for formalised marketing," he said.

The slaughtered price of goat meat remains high on the market with a kilogramme fetching US$2.

Mr Chinogaramombe acknowledged that the export of goat meat was a new thing to the company which is used to exporting beef only.

"This is a trial order and if it is fulfilled it can open up future orders," he said.

The meat processor last year shelved plans to export beef to new markets in the Far East due to operational and financial constraints.

CSC has reportedly been operating in the red for almost a decade now following the suspension of beef exports to the European Union after a major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001 and political misgivings.

Efforts to resume exports to the lucrative market have been in vain, prompting the Government to focus on Asian markets in line with its adopted "Look East" policy.

The new market, will bolster the country's foreign currency earnings and lure more framers into goat and sheep production.