The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is confident that Samoan cattle farmers are now capable of providing meat products locally.
The Ministry has seen Samoa’s growth in cattle farming, hence the plans to build a permanent meat factory or slaughterhouse.
“We have a temporary slaughterhouse and it will begin the local production of meat for Samoa while we work on the permanent factory to be completed by 2017,” said Associate minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Faasootauloa Pati Taulapapa.
“We have high hopes that this push will lessen our dependence on imported meat products, instead use our developments that our people are working on,” he added.
Years of research and collaboration between the Ministry, the two local universities and local farmers have gone into this programme to ensure Samoa is capable of producing its own meat products.
“It is definitely time to use our own local farmers to provide for our meat products in Samoa instead of always importing products, because we have acquired the standard in cattle health and numbers that is needed to make the move,” the minister said.
The World Bank is the driving force behind the project with its five- year grant to the Ministry.
One of the initiatives resulted in some cattle and sheep being brought into Samoa late last year.