Meat Board reports beef market decline for November
By Adolf Kaure.
Namibia’s beef market recorded a not insignificant decline of 3.14% during November 2022 as indicated by the monthly meat market report released by the Meat Board of Namibia (MBN) in the week before Christmas.
According to the report, 19,744 cattle in total were marketed during November 2022 compared to 20,414 heads of cattle marketed during the same period in 2021.
The decline is owed to the decline in throughput at B&C class abattoirs that dropped by 63.03% coupled with a 2.91% decline recorded in live exports.
Export- approved abattoirs on the other hand, saw an increase in throughput, recording a strong growth of 50.15%.
Marketing activities within the mutton sector recorded notable improvements during November 2022 due to pent up demand, following the ban on the movement of animals to neighbouring South Africa the previous month.
Overall sheep marketing recorded a growth of 37.54% during the month of November 2022 relative to the same period last year.
Live exports to South Africa and Botswana were the biggest driver of the growth as well as throughput at export approved abattoirs that grew by 62.17% and 514.98%, respectively.
Marketing activities within the goats sector remained relatively stable, recording a marginal growth of 1.83% during November 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
The growth, although marginal is owed to the increase in the number of goats exported live, predominantly to South Africa and those slaughtered at B & C class abattoirs (South of the Veterinary Cordon Fence)
Namibia exported 9,199,143 kg beef year to date (YTD) to various destinations which is 25.72% higher than the volumes observed in the 2021 comparable period.
Similarly, YTD beef imports stood at 2,164,454 kg by the end of November 2022, a growth of 26.34%.
Of these imports, 65.62% was canned products, 24.81% was offal products and the remaining 9.57% was made up of beef pies.
YTD mutton imports stood at 282,400 kg compared to 237,980 kg mutton imported during the same period in 2021.
However, the month of November saw a drop of 89.22% in mutton imports compared to November 2021.
Mutton imports were 6.5 times more than mutton exports by the end of November 2022 due to a slowdown in local slaughter activity.
Namibia remains a net importer of pork. A total of 6,130,729 kg of pork was imported into the country during 2022. 55% of pork imports was made up of pork offal, 22% processed products, 21% pork cuts and 11% pork carcasses.
Weaner prices averaged N$38.52/kg in November 2022 declining by 4.32% in comparison to November 2021. This brings the year-to-date average weaner price to N$37.57/kg.
The pork ceiling price increased by N$4.79/kg in November 2022 to N$48.11 from the October 2022 level of N$43.32/kg due to an increase in the South African reference price as well as the effect of the revised formula of the pork ceiling price.
