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The largest cattle feedlot in the world is increasing South African beef exports beyond the Middle East in order to take advantage of the growing demand in China and in the United States. other Asian markets.
The Karan Beef Feedlot, south of Johannesburg, is emblematic of South African agriculture's drive to boost exports of niche products, ranging from grapefruit to avocado by the way by the macadamia nut.
Increasingly, emphasis is being placed on high value-added products rather than mbad production of less lucrative crops such as corn. With 160,000 cattle on the property, milk production became bovine around 1980 and half million animals sent to the slaughterhouse According to director Matthew Karan, the 2,500 hectares represent each year the largest fattening site of a site.
Cattle are purchased from farmers in the country aged about eight months. In four months their weight has more than doubled to around 420 kilograms. Feed, including molbades and gluten, is mixed in a production line-like factory, allowing specially equipped trucks to fill the pens permanently.
The operation accounts for 70% of South Africa's beef exports and 30% of the local market.
"China needs more beef"
"It's as good as you would see in Texas," said Karan, one of the three sons of founder Ivor, whose own father owned a furniture manufacturing company in Johannesburg.
The company exports beef to the Middle East since the early 2000s and got access to China last year, doubling export volumes, has Karan said in an interview at the feedlot. From November to November 2004, he shipped 4.34 million kilograms of beef to China and 4.68 million kilograms to the Middle East.
"China is the market that puts pressure on us, China needs more beef."
The company had to work hard to promote South African beef, which is generally lean and pink because of the local grading system, he said. This compares to the more mottled meat of the United States and Australia, which contains more fat.
Karan explained about China: "We have limited the volumes we send because we do not want to get out of the local market, we can potentially increase our exports, but this facility is practically at our maximum." get to."
Chinese beef imports have soared this year and are on track for an annual record. Karan Beef is also considering Malaysia as a new export market and needs to be audited to ensure that it meets the country's halal standards early next year.
Pressure
Gerhard Schutte, chief executive officer of the Red Meat Producers Organization, said the beef sector in South Africa is under pressure to increase production to meet local and international demand. One possibility is to build the capacity of small farmers, who own about 40 percent of the country's livestock, but lack the competitiveness needed for export markets, he said.
LILY: PIC and Pelo to acquire majority stake in Karan Beef
In October, the Karan family agreed to sell a 90% stake in the company to the largest fund manager in Africa, the trustee of South African civil servants' pensions, and to the black company Pelo Agricultural Ventures for 5.2 Billion rand in one of the biggest attempts yet to deal with the legacy of apartheid in South African agriculture.
The agreement is the largest of the ICP to date in the agriculture sector, said the company's chief of business, Deon Botha.
The family will continue to run the business for the foreseeable future, Karan said. An earlier offer of 6 billion rubles for the entire business of Chinese investors wishing to export all production was rejected, he said.
"We have to make sure to leave our inheritance properly," said Karan. "Do you really want to be the guy who sold South Africa?"
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