Staff writer
Meatco’s production at the cannery is still suspended for the financial year 2021/22, after the company revealed that the economies of scale did not justify remaining open. This was revealed in the company’s latest financial report.
The company suspended its loss-making units, such as their cannery operations, while it redesigned their business models to become profitable before operations can resume soon, the company’s executive: finance, human resources, information technology and administration, Angus Claassen, said last year.
“With the cannery closed, Meatco can financially concentrate on the core business of slaughtering cattle and ensure financial
stability in these challenging times. The objective is to revamp the cannery once the finances have stabilised, as the cannery
brands are well established and can add value to Namibia’s ‘Growth at Home strategy,” the company said.
The cannery is part of the company’s agro-processing and value addition department.
However, the company has observed that its wholesale division is doing well, producing value-added products mainly marketed under the MeatMa brand.
The department, the company says, has invested in new technology and production processes to increase capacity and product quality.
They are also in the process of producing a business plan to
erect a fully-fledged, value-addition hub to increase the product basket, not only offering beef but also pork and sheep,
as well as adding new products such as goulash, mince, meatballs and hamburger patties, thereby increasing volumes
and expand the MeatMa brand. Part of this is investigating the possibility of utilising the Okahandja factory as a value-
addition plant.
“Going forward, Meatco aims to grow its local market presence with 20 per cent through local production, portioning and
new products to ensure a well-established MeatMa brand within the local market for Namibians,” the company said.
913,456 kg of meat products were sold during the financial year, generating revenue of N$28.9 million with a profit of N$5.4 million.
Although the company says it foresees a low number of cattle
available for slaughter to continue in the next year,
there is an improvement in the off-take cattle numbers.
“Therefore, we will continue with block slaughtering,
utilising only fixed-term contractors whenever the number
of available cattle increases in specific months.
We budget to slaughter 60,000 cattle in the next financial
year. An increase in cattle numbers is expected during the
middle of the next financial year, in which case a second team of fixed-term contractors will be brought in to deal with the higher cattle numbers.”
