Throughput at Meatco’s northern abattoirs is steadily on the increase as efforts by Meatco’s NCA management to minimize losses are starting to pay off.

The Oshakati Plant had a throughput of 4071 cattle since the beginning of the slaughter year while it slaughtered 3304 cattle during the same period last year. An estimated 2344 cattle will be slaughtered during July compared with only 1709 cattle slaughtered in 2005.

Slaughter figures have also improved at the Katima Mulilo plant. During the first half of the slaughter year, the Katima plant slaughtered 5257 cattle compared to the 5058 cattle slaughtered for the same period last year. This plant estimates to slaughter 1392 cattle during July compared to the 1002 that was slaughtered during the same month in 2005.

A further over 2800 cattle are already in quarantine camps for slaughtering during August at both the Oshakati and Katima Plants.

The increase in through-put is attributed to various strategies that were implemented towards the end of last year and earlier this year. These are: the payment of the Meatco support bonus of 50c per kilogram with slaughtering as an incentive to quarantine cattle; the increase of the Meatco producer price since the beginning of the year and the payment of a NCA Marketing Incentive Scheme of N$ 1.00 per kilogram from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry to support producers because of the quarantine system.

Other activities that are in place to attract more cattle to the northern plants are advance payments to producers who quarantine more than 3 cattle for slaughtering at Meatco; Meatco’s improved working relationship with Governments Extension Services as an effort to increase the training and information effort into which Meatco ploughs about N$ 2.4 million each year and the possible establishment of feedlots close to Government’s Green Scheme Project.

Meatco estimates that its northern plants will be open for longer periods each year should all of the above-mentioned strategies start paying off by the end of 2007. 

Farmers at a Meatco training day