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GOVT LOSES N$1M PER YEAR IN LAND LEASED TO ASPARAGUS COMPANY

By: Wonder Guchu

The Spanish company that is farming asparagus in Namibia is paying N$1m per year instead of N$2m, according to the valuation report.

Industrials Almentaries de Navara, which operates in Namibia as Otjimbele Agriculture (Pty) Ltd, is leasing 300ha of land at Etunda in the Omusati region.

The company is currently under scrutiny after some community members demonstrated claiming that there is a device that is stopping the rain from falling.

Sources within the agriculture ministry told The Villager that Otjimbele Agriculture started farming in 2018 before the land reform ministry carried out a valuation exercise.

The valuation was only completed in September 2019, and it set the market value of the land at N$43 645 860.

According to the valuation report, Otjimbele was supposed to pay N$200 063 per month. This adds up to N$2 400 762 per year.

The valuation also gives rental value options based on the percentage of proposed annual rental fees. 

At 100 per cent annually, Otjimbele is supposed to pay N$2 400 762, and at 75 per cent, the company can pay N$1 800 571.

If they choose 50 per cent, Otjimbele could be paying N$1 200 381, while at 40 per cent they can pay N$960 304 and at 20 per cent, the payment was set at N$480 152.

The former executive director in the agriculture ministry Percy Misika communicated the valuation findings to Otjimbele general manager Carlos Lertxundi Aretxaga on 30 April 2020.

Misika said the government invested a substantial amount of money in the project that ought to be recovered over time. 

“Any rate set below the project rel value would expose the government to a loss on the principal investment,” he said.

Misika referred to article 7, subsection 7.1 of the lease agreement, stating that the lease fees would inevitably change once the valuation process was completed.

Misika’s letter was copied to Vice President Nangolo Mbumba, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, the Omusati governor Erginus Endjala, the AgriBusDev board and the late AgriBusDev managing director Petrus Uugwanga.

It appeared Otjimbele did not respond to Misika’s letter about the lease fees increase, resulting in the acting AgriBusDev managing director Berfin Antindi writing to the former executive director on 25 October 2021.

Antindi pointed out that Otjimbele continued to pay only N$1 million as opposed to the required amount of N$2 million for the 300ha they are occupying at Etunda.

“In addition, we wish to report that should Otjimbele continue to pay N$1 million, it will result in the government recouping the investment of N$103 million only after 103 years,” she wrote.

Antindi said the non-payment of the required amount of lease fees constituted a material breach of the signed agreement.

On Monday, agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein told The Villager that he needed time to check how much the government invested.

Schlettwein also said AgriBusDev was now under the public enterprises’ ministry and that the letters were written before the parastatal was handed over.

Public enterprises minister Leon Jooste’s phone was unreachable.

MORE LAND

Otjimbele initially had 60ha, but Lertxundi appealed for more land in September 2018 during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Asparagus Agro-Processing factory at Omafo.

Lertxundi said they needed 300ha more to fully implement the multi-million dollar project. 

“To reach this full implementation phase, we will need to get more land availed to the agricultural production in Etunda; more precisely, an extra 300 hectares,” Lertxundi said. 

He told the gathering among them Kuugongelwa-Amadhila that his company had proven to be a reliable and serious investor.

Lertxundi also said that getting the extra 300ha of land at Etunda will translate into 800 direct jobs and ship 200 containers of asparagus to the rest of the world through the port of Walvis Bay.

Apart from jobs and exports, Lertxundi said the locals would benefit from gaining skills on how to cultivate asparagus. 

 

Wonder Guchu

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