Savanna to send first beef to Europe

Savanna Beef Processors, which was recently issued an export certificate, will be sending its first consignment of beef to Europe through the port of Walvis Bay at the end of April.

Savanna chief executive Ian Collard says the company will export matured deboned chilled/frozen beef cuts to the United Kingdom, the European Union and European Free Trade Association countries – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

“We will have to acquire enough livestock before we can send a container of about 24 tonnes to Europe,” he says.

The company uses slaughter rights traded on the Namibia Securities Exchange’s over-the-counter platform to book cattle for slaughter from producers.

A total of 927 slaughter rights were traded on the first day of trading for the first quarter, 16 March, at N$300 per right.

Collard says at the current rate of slaughter, it will take the company seven to 10 days to fill a container with different cuts of deboned meat.

He says about 200 cattle slaughtered before the company was granted export certification were mainly for training purposes to meet the demands and expectations of the European market.

“That meat was disposed of locally,” he says.

Savanna board chairperson Mecki Schneider says the company will brand the export beef as rangeland-raised beef.

He says with a producer-owned beef processing plant, producers can enhance the profitability of livestock production by adding value to the raw live product within Namibia to the benefit of all producers.

“Even the weaner producer will eventually benefit from a producer-owned beef processing facility,” he says.

He emphasises that the fundamental aim of Savanna Beef Processors is to retain 50 000 additional weaners by paying a premium for slaughter cattle to encourage producers to focus on delivering slaughter cattle to the export abattoir.

“The main competition of the Namibian beef export abattoirs is the live export market of weaners to South African feedlots, where value addition then takes place outside our borders,” he says.

Schneider says Savanna Beef does not plan on slaughtering and processing Wagyu cattle, because Namibia has a small herd of the breed.

“Meatco and the Rehoboth abattoir are enough to handle Wagyu processing at the moment,” he says.

Meatco this week announced it had entered the global premium beef market with the successful slaughter and processing of Wagyu cattle at its facilities.

“This is more than a processing milestone; it is a statement of intent. Namibia is not just participating in global beef markets, we are moving decisively into the premium segment where value, not volume, defines success,” Meatco interim chief executive Albertus Aochamub says in a statement.

Cattle farmer Joachim Cranz says Wagyu cattle have allowed him to farm with 20% less animals and still achieve the same results.

He says Wagyu slaughter is different, since the meat is graded according to the amount of intra-mascular fat for marbling.

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