Cattle continue to be the mainstay of Namibia’s agricultural sector with two of the country’s financial institutions forecasting a 3.8 – 4% growth for the sector in 2022.
Bank of Namibia forecasts a 3.8% growth rate for the agricultural sector, with 4.5% growth forecasted for livestock farming, 3% for crop farming and 3.8% for fishing in 2022.
On the other hand, Agribank, whose mandate is to fund agricultural projects in the country, forecast a 4% growth in the agriculture sector for 2022.
According to a Simonis Storm securities report, in the livestock sector, cattle slaughtering increased by 16.4% y/y in April 2022, sheep slaughter dropped 9.8% y/y and goat figures went down dramatically by 85.1% y/y.
However, the pigs sent to slaughter rose 9.7% y/y.
Cattle were the best performing sub-sector y/y with total slaughtering having increased by 30.2% compared to the same period last year.
“Total slaughtering increased by 18.2% YTD for sheep, goats decreased 91.7% and pigs rose 1.0% compared to the same period last year,” said Simonis.
During April 2022, live exports for cattle increased by 3.6% y/y, that of sheep rose by 73.7% y/y and goats by 12.6% y/y.
Exports went to Europe (60%), rest of Africa (24%) and China and the US (16%). Within Africa, South Africa, Tanzania and Botswana were the biggest export destinations.
“South Africa was the only export destination for sheep and Botswana the only destination for pig exports during April 2022,” said the analysts.
The analysts added that export abattoirs are still operating below capacity, but are 67.8% better than they were at the same period last year.
“Due to improved rainfall, vegetation growth was above average in most parts of the country at the end of March 2022, but remains below average in the North-Eastern regions according to Agribank research. Together with general expectations for beef prices to continue rising owing to growing demand in China, the current environment should incentivize farmers to re-stock herds and increase production despite input costs mounting,” Simonis Storm Economist Theo Klein said.
Fishing
Local fishing companies according to the Simonis storm report, recorded high levels of demand from export destinations including SADC members, Australia, China, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Korea and the US among others.
“Coupled with a weakening Rand exchange rate, export earnings are set to increase from the sector going forward. Fish exports averaged 14.6% of total exports in the last two years, making this a crucial sector for Namibia’s trade balance and foreign currency reserves. However, expensive quotas, rising input costs such as wages, fuel and electricity prices are weighing on profits in the sector,” Klein said.
Horticulture
During April 2022, the Namibian borders remained closed to the importation of four different horticulture products, namely butternut, cucumber, coloured peppers and pumpkin according to the Namibian Agronomic Board (NAB).
The NAB, at the end of April, closed the borders for the importation of another seven products during May 2022.
Beetroot, cabbage, green pepper, onion, sweet potato, tomato jam and sweet corn were added to the list.
“In the absence of crop harvest data, this indicates that local supply has improved and is forecasted to satisfy local demand. We can therefore assume crop production has been positive YTD,” said Klein said.
