Livestock and meat industry records mixed results for July

By Michel Haoses.

The Livestock and Livestock Products Board, this week released the trade statistics for July, showing that cattle, sheep and pigs recorded an increase in marketing activities while the goats recorded a drop.

According to the Commentary released by Trade and Strategic Marketing Statistician, Fransina Angula, cattle marketing recorded a 25.2% increase which brought the 2024 year-to-date (YTD) total to 243,431 compared to 171,838 marketed during the same period last year.

The sheep sector similarly recorded improved marketing numbers during the reporting period as 82,401 were marketed compared to the 79,957 during July 2023, which brought YTD total at 597,337 by the end of July 2024.

Meanwhile, the goat sector recorded a decline in marketing with only 15,616 goats marketed during July 2024 and 77,007 YTD marketed by the end of July 2024.

Live cattle exports improved by 23.4%, recording 19,218 heads exported mainly due to drought conditions while beef exports totaled 3,435,856 kg, growing by 74.1% during July and bringing exports to 14,403,947 kg and 70.8% higher than the 2023 level. However, year-to-date beef imports have decreased by 39.3% pointing to improved availability of locally produced offal.

During July, the EU took up more than 67.5% of total beef exports while South Africa took up 27.1% and the remaining 5.4% share going to Norway, UK, China and Ghana respectively.

In the sheep sector, slaughtering activities at export approved and local abattoirs dropped during July, recording declines of 25% and 36.8%. All-grade producer prices averaged N$50.06/kg during the reporting period while A2 average carcass producer price came in at N$73.09/kg.

Lamb producer prices recovered during July 2024 and averaged N$33.89/kg compared to N$32.14/kg received by producers during the same period last year. However, YTD export of lamb and mutton fell by 28.2% due to poor slaughter activity. Similary y-o-y lamb and mutton exports declined by 53.2% during July compared to the reporting period last year.

The reduced throughput recorded at abattoirs resulted in a drop of lamb and mutton exports with only 81,599 kg exported to South Africa. Although Namibia, Botswana and Eswatini share a 400 tons Norwegian quota, Angula noted that there has been no exports made to Norway by Namibian abattoirs thus far.

Furthermore, goat prices averaged N$29.85/kg by the end of July, while pig slaughtering for the period under review totaled 4,100 animals, 8.5% growth in comparison to a slaughter quantity of 779 pigs during the same period in 2023.

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