Despite the devastating effects of COVID-19 on global exports, Namibia’s meat export to the Chinese market has seen a dramatic increase. Amid the pandemic, Namibia was not part of the 46 meat processing plants that suspended exports to China. Namibia was still actively exporting meat to China.
According to MEATCO, a Namibian meat processing and marketing company, Namibia has exported 973,412c tonnes of beef to the Chinese market this year. MEATCO’S spokesperson has said that “a total number of 32 containers have been channeled successfully to the Chinese market, since the beginning of this year and the last shipment was on 28 July.”
The spokesperson also added that “Namibia is set to increase its export quantities to China as most farmers are expected to come out of the restocking phase in which they are currently in and marketing to the export abattoir and other facilities will increase.”
The company, which launched its first beef exports to China in 2019, strictly operates with beef products and only exports bone-in beef and beef offal products to the Chinese market. Namibia and South Africa are currently the only African countries exporting beef to China. Amid Covid-19, Ghana’s Embassy also announced a strategy to improve the export of Cocoa to the Chinese market, by opening a cocoa marketing center in China’s Hunan province and also working to secure a tariff-free export of Cocoa deal with China. With the gradual opening of China’s ports, Rwandan coffee exports to China are also beginning to rebound, according to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
