The Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (RPO) is a member organisation for primary cattle, sheep and goat producers.

The organisation’s primary objective is to represent its members during high-level discussions that could influence the business and sustainability of the primary producer.

Through its affiliation with other organisations such as the National Stock Theft Prevention Forum, the Predation Management Forum, and the National Genetic Export Advisory Committee, the RPO fulfils a wide range of functions in the industry to the benefit of the red meat producer.

As a registered affected group at the National Agricultural Marketing Council, the RPO is included in all official government forums that concern red meat producers.

The RPO also has a seat at the general agricultural organisations such as Agri SA and TLU SA, as well as other organisations in the red meat and natural fibre value chains.

Sharing information

As the foremost organisation that represents its members in the red meat value chain, the RPO places great emphasis on sharing relevant information with its members.

As such, information on a wide range of topics is shared by the RPO, including weekly market reports, information on stock theft, and information on predator and natural resource management.

The RPO also shares information on large- scale problems, like a country- wide drought, with its members.

Technical support

The RPO also involves relevant experts to provide its members with technical support or advice, depending on the problems producers are experiencing.

Disease management and control

With recent large-scale outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, disease management and control has once again come under the spotlight. T

he rules and regulations that guide the management of some of these diseases can be complicated, and the RPO thus assists its members by providing affected producers with information on the regulations and guidelines that need to be followed.

The RPO is also in constant contact with government to help ensure that the final regulations are not impractical and will not be to the disadvantage of primary producers.

Facing industry challenges

The biggest challenges currently facing the livestock industry are biosecurity, traceability, stock theft, predation and natural resource use.

In order to help producers navigate and manage these challenges, the RPO liaises and negotiates with all role players and government to best support producers to help them with the issues at both national and provincial levels.

Looking forward to the future

One of the key priorities of the RPO is to improve primary producers’ profitability. This can only be achieved by unlocking foreign markets.

The National Genetic Export Advisory Committee is a sub-committee of the RPO that deals specifically with the exporting of genetic material of cows and sheep to several countries, as South African genetics are in high demand.

While the National Genetic Export Advisory Committee was established for the exporting of stud animals to neighbouring countries, the committee’s activities are currently hampered by the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

The RPO is also the founding member of the International Red Meat Forum, which operates on behalf of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

It deals with matters that concern producers in all three countries on a producer level.
The RPO is also in negotiation with several partners to offer direct benefits back to its members.

In terms of the statutory levy, the RPO was also one of the founding members and forms part of the cluster that applied for the current statutory levy.

The RPO is also represented on the board of both the Red Meat Primary Cluster and the Red Meat Industry Services, and one of its key focuses is to ensure that the statutory levy is applied correctly to the benefit of the primary producer.

One of the RPO’s sub-committees, the Livestock Export Forum, is concerned with the live export of animals in order to create sustainable alternative markets for livestock producers.
The RPO also focuses on animal health, traceability and animal identification and tries to negotiate the best possible position for producers at all times.

Direct influence

Overall, the RPO represents producers on approximately 144 forums and gives input on all legislation that has a direct influence on its members’ farming operations.

For more information phone the RPO on 012 349 1102/3, or email [email protected].