Namibia Dairies

Namibia Dairies faces significant threats from the dumping of long-life milk by South African companies following the expiration of infant industry protection. The company reports systemic barriers including difficult VAT claim processes, conservative bank lending, and a shortage of qualified engineers due to a lack of national industrial policy and restrictive work permit regulations. Regional trade is hindered by non-tariff barriers, such as lengthy border delays in Angola and rigorous, time-consuming certification requirements in Botswana that reduce product shelf life. To mitigate these issues, the company has invested in private pre-inspections for Angolan exports and R&D for flexible shelf life, while lobbying the Namibian government for punitive tariffs against South African imports.

• The Namibian dairy industry is threatened by the dumping of long-life milk from South African companies that import milk from South America, a situation exacerbated by the expiration of an eight-year infant industry protection measure.
• Namibia Dairies experiences significant operational barriers within Namibia, including unacceptable delays in receiving VAT claims outstanding since 2006 and difficulty accessing finance from conservative banks, leaving the firm "asset rich and cash poor".
• A lack of industrial policy and restrictive immigration rules create a skills imbalance, making it difficult to source engineers locally or from the SADC region and Europe; work permits for foreigners can take over six months to be discussed.
• Trade with SADC partners is hindered by non-tariff barriers: Angola presents border delays of 1-2 weeks and arbitrary forex regulations, while Botswana's meticulous certification process takes 4 weeks of a 7-week shelf life, making business nearly non-viable.
• To overcome these barriers, Namibia Dairies has paid for private pre-inspections to speed up Angolan border clearance to 2 days and invested in R&D for flexible shelf life to address Botswana's requirements.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2012). Namibia Dairies. https://saiia.org.za/saiia-toolkit/namibia-dairies/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Namibia Dairies. 2012. https://saiia.org.za/saiia-toolkit/namibia-dairies/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Namibia Dairies |date=24 July 2012 |url=https://saiia.org.za/saiia-toolkit/namibia-dairies/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2012namibia, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Namibia Dairies}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2012}, month = jul, url = {https://saiia.org.za/saiia-toolkit/namibia-dairies/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }