Investigating The Impact Of Value Addition In The Agricultural Sector With Special Reference To The Pork Market-Share Promotion Scheme

ABSTRACT

Namibia’s topographical nature, lends it ideally suited for livestock production. Livestock in Namibia is very competitive since it’s raised on natural free ranging pastures. Unfortunately due to its small domestic market, Namibia is a net exporter of livestock meat and meat products. This has resulted in the Namibian government developing policies and strategies to add value to the abundance of raw material, with the main objective being that of employment creation and improved foreign exchange earnings. This was done as part of the Growth at Home Strategy, which has seen the development and implementation of the Pork Market Share Promotion Scheme, (PMSPS), in 2012. The PMSPS was developed to protect the relatively small Namibian pork industry that needs to compete with its more advanced South African counterparts in terms of importation of low priced pork meat and products, with the main aim of developing the local industry. The research adopted a mixed research method of quantitative and qualitative research design. Data was collected by means of questionnaires and interviews. The population was divided into three groups, namely; the pork producers, importers and retailers who received emailed questionnaires, while policy-makers were interviewed. The major findings were that the PMSPS performed as expected in terms of market access and profitability, however new entrants into the scheme remains a major challenge due to a lack of startup capital, lack of skills and knowledge and the high feeding cost. This could be addressed by redesigning finance packages for prospective producers, reviewing of the Green Scheme Policy to include fodder production and an intensive campaign to encourage pork farming nationwide.