THE LOCAL MEAT MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
It is important to kick-start this discussion on the local meat market opportunities with past and future perspectives in terms of growth in the wildlife industry by Dr Flippie Cloete (School of Economics, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus).
He reported as follows:
“Based on available data, it is estimated that the consumptive utilisation of game animals in South Africa is unlikely to exceed 70% of the annual progeny, which suggests a healthy population growth rate. Game numbers are constantly on the increase and so is the number of hectares dedicated to game ranching.
“However, this emphasises the need for future development in terms of not only ensuring the growth of well-established consumptive markets (biltong and trophy hunting), but also the establishing of new consumptive market opportunities to ensure game ranching remains an economically viable land use option.”
This new and emerging market typically refers to raw primal cuts and ready-to-serve game meat meals.
Recent statistics in the local market alluded to game meat representing at least 45% of red meat consumption in the hunting season and as much as 26% annually (M van der Merwe, 2019).
