Need for speed for Swazi meat exports

With the transport of meat products, speed is the same essential as with any perishable product, particularly when cross-border transport is involved. And for landlocked Swaziland’s meat exports which move via the Port of Durban, it’s an issue that must be factored in. For meat, the transport process is governed by regulations enforced by veterinarian authorities, according to Swaziland Meat Industries (SMI) director Jon Williams. The perishable supply chain – with its precise temperature parameters – must conform to the standards of an importing country and the verdict on whether a product safely meets those standards is determined by a veterinary inspector either at Durban or other locations. By packing their own reefers, Swaziland Meat Industries at the Matsapha Industrial Estate may employ Swazi government veterinarians at point of product origin, while the next veterinarians are at the destination, which may be Norway. “There is a whole side of veterinary science that deals with food,” said Williams. “The vets who do the inspections are government vets, employed by a country’s ministry of agriculture. The European Union requires that the vet be independent of us (meat exporting companies). Food safety cuts across many boundaries, starting at the farm, at the store, at restaurants. Our part is to ensure meat quality at the abattoir and as the meat is shipped out,” Williams told FTW. Some 700 tonnes of the 6700 tonnes of meat prepared by SMI in 2013 was exported. The rest was from cows sourced in SA and slaughtered for the Swazi and Mozambican markets the company serves. All exported product goes to the European Union (EU) – 500 tonnes to Norway and 200 tonnes to Reunion and Mayotte, which fall under the EU. “The Europeans have codes that govern food. If you are a country like Swaziland which exports to them you must follow those codes. The buyer looks for our accreditation. We use the British code, the British Retail Consortium (BRC). SGS (the inspection firm in SA) also inspects by the BRC code,” Williams said. Because of rules of origin requirements, only Swazi beef is permitted to enter the EU market. The trade is allowed in the name of developmental assistance. “The Association of Meat Producers in Norway came to us in 2009 and said they wanted an alternative supplier to Botswana and Namibia. This could not be done as a private business arrangement and there had to be a government to government reciprocal agreement. The EU is protective of its meat industry and uses high tariffs to keep out non-EU meat. The only way this would work (profitably for Swazi beef exports) was to avoid the tariffs. The governments talked and the EU agreed to drop their tariffs as a development programme for Swaziland’s meat industry. They wanted to see that rural farmers benefited,” said Williams. The 500-tonne quota for Swazi beef imports was met the third year of the arrangement and has been achieved every year since. Transport since the end of 2013 has been via reefer trucks. “The trucks come from Durban – they have generators and we plug a filled container into the truck. The temperature is set at minus 24 degrees for frozen meat and zero degrees for chilled meat. You’d think zero would freeze the meat but it doesn’t because it is an active organism,” he said. “The charge is a bit more (than shipping break bulk) but it is a big advantage for us because we can pack the container ourselves and it is sealed by our (Swaziland Ministry of Agriculture) veterinarian. The vets in Norway unseal the container. We deal not only with customs, because the meat trade is controlled by vets. They make sure the meat is free of disease. In Norway it is salmonella they seek to avoid,” Williams said. INSERT & CAPTION There is a whole side of veterinary science that deals with food. – Jon Williams