Why an animal disease in ||Kharas should worry every Namibian, not just farmers

A single disease outbreak in one region could ripple through Namibia's entire economy, costing jobs, foreign currency and export markets that took years to build, according to local authority councillor for Mariental, William Minnie.

Minnie used the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in ||Kharas region to illustrate how deeply Namibia's livestock sector is tied to the country's broader economic health. The industry isn't just about farming, he said; it earns foreign exchange, supports rural communities, and links Namibian producers to buyers overseas.

The warning comes as Meatco, Namibia's meat processing giant, is already under pressure: its group revenue dropped 40.4% to N$1.11 billion in 2025, largely due to fewer cattle being processed. Minnie pointed to this as proof of how quickly the sector can be destabilised.

With movement and export restrictions now in place because of the outbreak, he said the fallout won't stay confined to affected farms.

Namibia has spent years securing access to lucrative markets in the European Union, Norway, China and the SADC region, but such access depends on maintaining disease-free status. Any disruption threatens not just farmers but also processors, workers along the value chain, and the foreign currency the country earns from exports.

Minnie also raised a bigger-picture concern: Namibia's ambitions under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is meant to open up trade across the continent. But he argued that benefiting from AfCFTA requires more than just access, it requires the systems to prove products are safe to move across borders.

Framing the issue through economist Walt Rostow's theory of economic development, Minnie argued that Namibia's path toward a more advanced, diversified economy depends on protecting exactly this kind of productive capacity. In his view, the FMD outbreak isn't just a veterinary problem, it's a test of whether Namibia can safeguard the industries it's built while still growing them.