afrol News, 26 April - Namibia's Witvlei Meat is pushing hard to get approval to export its beef to the European Union market.

Witvlei Meat inherited the liquidated Witvlei Abattoir last year. The company has entered into partnership with Fatland, a Norwegian meat producing company.

According to Terje Wester, the Director of Fatland, exportation of Namibian beef to the EU market will start as soon as they get the clearance to do so.

A delegation of Norwegian companies is currently in Namibia principally to forge partnership with Witvlei. They include officials from the largest supermarket chain in Norway, Nordesgruppen Supermarket Chain, which has over 2,000 branches. Its annual turnover stands above US $6 billion.

They also met officials of the Meat Board of Namibia and the National Laboratory who informed them about the country’s impressive standard of farm hygiene and abattoirs.

The Manager of Witvlei Meat, Hendri Badenhorst, said the company will not export all its products to EU as 40 percent will be exported to South Africa. However, large chunk of the production - 60 percent - goes to the huge Norway market.

The Namibian company was elated to announce storming the lucrative South African market with its first consignment of meat a fortnight ago.

Namibia's beef exports to Norway have plummeted from 2,700 tones to 3,2000 in recent times, but the demand is still high.

Fatland Director concurs that Namibian meat has already got a place in the Norway market. He however said big volumes of the country’s meat are needed for popularisation in Norway.

Mr Badenhorst said there are future plans to export Witvlei Meat to the Scandanavia.

Being one of he biggest meat traders in Norway, the Norwegian Meat Trade is seriously making possibilities of acquiring Namibian meat for sale in Norway.

Nambian feed also need to be carefully packaged before it storms the EU market otherwise it will lose its identity. Mr Badenhorst said his plant will soon send managers to Norway for further studies on meat production, packaging, identification, among others.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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