Namibia becomes the first African country to export beef to the US
The first shipment of Namibian beef has been sent this week to the United States after 18-years of negotiations. The first batch of 25 tonnes of Namibian beef has been sent to Philadelphia, making Namibia the first African country to enter the US beef market.
Benefiting from a duty-free regime under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Namibia has a quota of 860 tonnes of beef for 2020, which is expected to grow at 5,000 tonnes by 2025, informs Reuters.
"We're able to finally export meat to the lucrative and big US market," Namibia's minister of international relations, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said on February 19. Under the deal, exports will include boneless, raw beef cuts in frozen or chilled form and officials admitted that they are focusing on the fast-food industry in the US to turn enterprises such as McDonald's into regular customers for Namibian beef. In 2019, Namibia exported about 12,400 tonnes of meat to Norway, the European Union and Chinese markets. Namibian beef is seen as a quality product due to attributes such as free-range, grass-fed, hormone-free beef.
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