The Meat Board of Namibia has been renamed to Livestock and Livestock Products Namibia Board following the amendment of the Meat Industry Act of 1981. In the same vein, dairy and poultry will be regulated under the new Act.
“The inclusion of dairy and dairy related products as well as the poultry and poultry related products including eggs will greatly assist local producers. The two sub-sectors are at the brink of collapse as many producers are going out of production due to imports into Namibia,” said Agriculture, Water and Land Reform Minister Calle Schlettwein.
“The explicit inclusion of dairy and poultry products in the MI Act, would enable the MBN to exercise effective management of the importation of dairy and dairy products as well as poultry meat and meat products and overcome the legal challenges experienced over the past years.”
Schlettwein says this will enable Namibia to develop its dairy and poultry industries through a pro-growth regulatory framework in line with the Namibia Agriculture Policy and Growth at Home Strategy.
“Available data indicates that Namibian consumption is able to support the poultry, diary and pork industries if these industries can be assisted to grow on the premise that consumer prices are equal to those in the SACU region and not to the detriment of consumers,” he added.
Namibia is a net importer of food in general and poultry, diary and pork. These products are part of a basic diet of households across all income levels.
Based on that, Schlettwein said, the growth of these sectors in terms of production volume is critical for reducing import reliance, which he says is heavily influenced by animal disease control measures internationally and future imported inflation risk.
He further emphasised that the growth of local industry competitiveness is a pre-requisite for long-term industrial sustainability to ensure maximisation of consumer demand needs without obtaining cheaper products elsewhere.
“The growth of these agricultural industries, all intensive industries with high employment creation potential are crucial for import substitution, food self-sufficiency and food security as well as adding value to locally produced raw material,” he reiterated.
He further reasoned that, reliance on imports not only presents a food security risk but also has associated economic and financial risks like imported inflation, exchange control and balance of payment risks.
Schlettwein therefore underscored the importance of the Growth at Home initiative, indicating that it lays down value addition as a premise for initiating industrial growth and for creating jobs locally.
He is thus of the view that intensive agricultural industries such as poultry, diary and pork represent opportunities for diversification, import substitution and improving the balance of trade.
