AT the request of the Aranos Farmers’ Association, NAU President Ryno van der Merwe and NAU Executive Manager Sakkie Coetzee visited farmers in the Aranos area on Thursday to discuss the virtual ban on sheep exports.
Government has a policy that for every sheep exported live to South African abattoirs, six sheep must be slaughtered locally.
Farmer’s dissatisfaction with the delay of a decision about the future of sheep marketing was the main topic of discussion.
Coetzee sketched the negotiation process in detail to the farmers.
‘Government as a decision-maker wants to get a consensus decision from the NAU/LPO on the one hand and the Abattoirs Association of Namibia on the other hand,’ Van der Merwe told farmers.
An agreement was reached on February 13 whereafter a technical committee has to look at the more technical points of introducing a levy for live sheep exports.
Unfortunately certain abattoirs have delayed the process by making demands.
A Monitoring and Implementing Committee which must make a recommendation to Government about the future of small-stock marketing in Namibia will meet again shortly to look if a solution can be found, according to the latest newsletter of the NAU.
The farmers showed understanding for the difficult circumstances under which negotiations are taking place after Van der Merwe explained the whole situation.
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