First NCA beef to Zim

The Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Hon. John Mutorwa, visited the Oshakati Abattoir this, to inspect the first 40 tons of bone-in beef to be exported from the Northern Communal Areas (NCAs) to Zimbabwe on Friday 29 November 2013.
The beef was produced by six Livestock Marketing Cooperatives supported by the Millenium Challenge Account Namibia.
Under a recently signed agreement, a total of 1000 tons will be exported to Zimbabwean wholesalers over the next 20 months.

MCA Namibia under its Community-Based Rangeland and Livestock Management (CBRLM) programme played a vital role in striking this historic bilateral deal, as the Northern Communal Areas are not yet officially declared free from animal diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).
This has severely hampered exports from these areas despite the fact that no FMD outbreak had been recorded over the past 60 years, except from the Mukwe district in the Okavango Region where it was contained rapidly.
This infection which originated in Botswana led to the quarantine of four districts in the Okavango.
It is estimated that more than 60% of Namibia’s cattle live north of the Veterinary Cordon Fence in Hereroland, Owamboland, the Okavango and the Zambezi. The annual offtake rate from these areas is just 4% in comparison to 25% in the commercial farming areas south of the Red Line. After his visit to the abattoir, Minister Mutorwa attended the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Livestock Marketing Cooperatives and CBRLM.