06/08/2011 - Danish Coop and Meatco develoment fund

The Meatco Board met with Esben Meier (Coop Buying Controller) and Berit Grubbe Pfuhl (Buyer) of the Danish Coop in Copenhagen to review the years supply programme and also to agree and sign off the quarterly Ethical Fund contribution. The fund value is now sufficient (circa €70k) for the Meatco Foundation to commence work on the water supply project in the NCA of Namibia. The water project will bring fresh water supplies local to a village and grazing cattle.

05/08/2011 - Meatcodelegation meets Norgesgruppen senior team

The Meatco board representatives have held a day of meetings with some of Norgesgruppen's senior team to discuss this years beef supply programme and plans for further development in value addition. NorgesGruppen is Norway’s largest trading enterprise with the core business in grocery retailing and wholesaling. Through its 1900 grocery stores and 700 convenience stores that are affiliated to the group,  Norgesgruppen has a market share of 40.0 per cent of the grocery market in Norway.

Attending the meeting for NorgesGruppen was Mr Bjorn Larsen MD of Unil (the retail arm of the group) Mr Stian Dyre Hansen MD of Norsk Polar (Porcurement) and Mr Frederico Ferrannini-Fick PD of Norsk Polar Procurement.

After the meeting a visit to retail outlets and cash and carry outlets selling Natures Reserve Beef was organised to see how the Natures Reserve product is presented and marketed to the wholesale and retail customers.

03/08/2011 - Meatco Team discuss laboratory upgrades at UNIDO Vienna

The board delegation from Meatco headed by Chairwoman Clara Bohitile met with the team from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Vienna headed by Mr Calzadilla-Sarmiento  the Unit Chief of Compliance Infrastructure Unit of Trade Capacity Building Branch and Deputy to the Director.

The meeting was arranged in order to discuss cooperation in upgrading laboratory capacity in Namibia. This upgrading and accreditaion to international standards is designed to raise the export potential for both meat and fish products. The project is expected to last three years and will start later in 2011

Yesterday the Meatco team were in Brussels for a series of meetings discussing the EU market and will now move on to meet with some of Meatco Natures Reserve customers in Scandinavia.

04/07/2011 - Meatco Farmers Inspected By Swedish Coop

A Consultant from the Swedish Coop has spent the last five days with the Meatco team making inspections. The comprehensive review of the whole supply chain included visits to farms and slaughter facilities at Okahandja. Interviews were carried out with representatives from FanMeat and the Namibian Veterinary service as well as feed and agricultural supplies merchants in Windhoek.

The initial findings were very positive and Meatco hope that the final outcome of this inspection will be a supply contract later this year.

15/02/2011 - Meatco delegation meet Inex S Group Finland

The Meatco Team including Martin Hilbert the Meatco Farmer Board Member visited the Inex S Group in Finland. The S Group is the market leader in the Finnish grocery market, with a over 42 per cent market share. In addition to Finland, the S Group has operations in the Baltic countries and the St. Petersburg area. In 2008 the S Group’s retail sales totalled EUR 11,821 million and it operated in more than 1,500 locations.

Discussions and store visits with Mr Hannu Pellinen the Group Buying Controller gave the Meatco team an opportunity to discuss how Natures Reserve Namibian Beef can become an integral part of the S Group offer to consumers. This is the second meeting of the two companies but the first linking the senior management in marketing discussions.

 

23/11/2010 - The Meatco Executive team in Copenhagen

The Meatco Natures Reserve Brand is finding favour with both the both the retail butchery teams of the Danish Coop and their demanding consumers. A recent visit to the Coop distribution warehouse in Copenhagen by Brian Perkins MD Meatco Europe and Meatco CEO Jocobus Du Plessis was a valuable chance to discuss the impact of the summer promotion Football World Cup "Braai" and begin planning the continued growth of sales of Namibian beef in 2011.

Spending a busy day with the two leading Coop store butchers and later the Coop buyers gave the Meatco executive team a unique and detailed insight into the needs of the Danish consumer and a host of new ideas of how to better tailor product and deliveries for the new season.

The butchers themselves will make the return journey to the Meatco Windhoek plant early in 2011 and will work alongside their Namibian counterparts to share their retail knowledge and consumer experiences with the Namibian Meatco teams.

 

 

11/11/2010 - Meatco invited to present at the first Global Sustainable Beef Summit Denver Colorado

 

The global beef industry supports millions of people worldwide and the global demand for beef is projected to rise significantly by 2050, placing greater constraints on the planet’s resources. From across the global beef industry leading companies and the World Wildlife Fund sponsored, hosted and supported the first Global Conference on Sustainable Beef. The conference aims were to share better management practices, bring together stakeholders from across the global beef industry and to provide a space for constructive dialog on the science and the data. Meatco were invited to

present the "challenges of sustainability in the global beef market" viewed through the African lens to the assembled conference delegates. Intense roundtable discussions on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions from beef farming, water usage, food safety, equitable land use and sustainable best practice followed over two days.

Supported at the conference by the Meatco foundation roundtable partners (Solidaridad and WWF) a series of private wide ranging discussions with a number of multilateral agencies, donors and potential collaborative partners proved to be invaluable. Opportunities to fund bush clearance, reclamation and rangeland management projects boosting beef production in Namibia without compromising environmental goals were discussed.

See the conference material at http://www.sustainablelivestock.org/

10/10/2010 - Meatco invited to present at the GlobalGap Summit London 2010

 

GlobalGap is the industry leading pre-farm gate agricultural standard and is currently accepted by the majority of the large multinational food retailers. Recent farm trials in Namibia led by an independent European certification body have demonstrated that the Namibian Fanmeat standard has compared favourably with the Globalgap Livestock Standard. These key findings and Meatco’s continued technical development strategy were presented to an assembled industry audience at London’s Hilton Metropole Hotel by Rosa Katjivena the Meatco Group Technical Manager.

Rosa shared the afternoon platform and a later vibrant Q&A discussion with ASDA (Walmart), Migros (Swiss), and MacDonald’s Europe as the leading industry players discussed the challenges of working in the expanding global beef industry.

An information booth in the main conference forum area provided the 300 retail industry delegates with a chance to follow the Natures Reserve recommendation and "experience something unique" through the "Secret Namibia" video presentation and then an opportunity to discuss future commercial partnership opportunities with the Meatco CEO Jocobus Du Plessis and two members of the Meatco Europe marketing team.