Exporting cattle: The motive is suspect

While prospects that come with government efforts to secure a market for Ngamiland farmers in neighbouring countries such as Angola and Zimbabwe might appear to be good, I would like to point out some hidden flaws in the thinking. My concerns emanate from the fact that the sale of live animals is likely to lead to growth in the number of cattle in the importing countries and result in a decrease in the local cattle population. Also to the detriment of the local beef industry, such a scenario would further create a flourishing cattle industry in countries that originally had low cattle numbers.

We suspect that the excitement that our neighbours might have about the likely sale of cattle to them largely stems from their broad understanding of issues around the likely emergence of a future large beef industry for which the sale of live cattle provides great potential.