SA wash facilities assessed as Namibia tightens FMD safeguards

Namibia is moving closer to a possible solution to one of the headaches created by its foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) safeguards: livestock trucks returning from South Africa without backloads.

According to the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), 15 wash and disinfection facilities in South Africa are being assessed for possible accreditation.

The initiative is being driven by Namibia’s Livestock and Livestock Products Board (LLPB), which has contracted South African private inspection and compliance company AfriCompliance to conduct the assessments.

AfriCompliance specialises in independent compliance inspections and certification.

The NAU said the assessments are intended to determine whether the facilities meet the biosecurity standards required to effectively clean and disinfect livestock vehicles before they return to Namibia.

Where deficiencies are identified, facilities must address them before they can be considered for accreditation.

AfriCompliance will then submit a detailed report to the LLPB outlining its findings and recommendations for each facility. The report will guide the next stage of the accreditation process.

The issue has significant implications for Namibia’s transport and agricultural sectors.

At present, trucks that have transported livestock to South Africa are prohibited from carrying backloads to Namibia, according to the NAU.

This can leave operators facing costly return journeys without cargo, increasing the cost of transporting goods across the border. The additional costs can have a knock-on effect on commodities such as animal feed and other agricultural inputs.

Possibility of change

The proposed accreditation system could eventually change this.

The union said that, once a truck has been properly cleaned and disinfected at an accredited facility and complied with prescribed biosecurity procedures, it could potentially be permitted to transport certain approved products back to Namibia.

This would allow transporters to make more productive use of return journeys without compromising Namibia’s FMD control measures.

The objective, however, is not simply to reduce transport costs, the NAU said.

The union said the accreditation process is intended to ensure that cleaning and disinfection procedures are carried out properly and consistently before vehicles re-enter Namibia.

This is an important layer of defence against the introduction and spread of FMD, which poses a serious threat to the country’s livestock industry.

The system will therefore have to balance trade facilitation with strict disease-control measures.

The initial 15 facilities are being assessed at the cost of the LLPB, including annual evaluations.

Other facilities will also have an opportunity to enter the accreditation process. Interested parties can apply for additional wash and disinfection facilities to be assessed, with the costs of evaluation and accreditation to be borne by the applicants.

The immediate focus is on completing the assessments of the 15 facilities.

Once the evaluations are complete and any identified shortcomings have been addressed, AfriCompliance’s report will give the LLPB the information it needs to determine the next steps.

For transporters, the process could eventually mean fewer empty return journeys and lower costs associated with cross-border livestock transport.