The 10 Miss Namibia finalists visited the MeatCo Okapuka Feedlot as part of an educational tour hosted by pageant sponsor MeatCo.

Situated about 30 kilometres along the road between Windhoek and Okahandja, the MeatCo Okapuka Feedlot is an intensive animal production system that prepares cattle to meet Meatco's quality and market standards.

During the visit, MeatCo Tannery Manager Estie Kwenani explained the leather production process, demonstrating how hides are transformed into semi-finished leather products.

"And this is a tannery where we do semi-finished products up to weight blue. The history of the plant started in the early, early 90s. And it was a finished plant for leather, which we exported for BMW finished car seats to Munich. That operation has stopped. And now we are only doing the semi-finished part."

Hallie Investment Leasing Meatco Feedlot Manager JP Snyman also briefed the finalists on Meatco's core business, explaining that cattle producers are at the heart of the company. He said Meatco acts as a value-adding and marketing operation on behalf of producers and returns value generated from various markets through the producer price paid for cattle.

"Yeah, so basically what we do is also when they reach a certain weight, meatCo takes them to the abattoir; they slaughter them, then they use the meat for exports for local shops and stuff. But the thing is, meatCo likes the meat at a certain grade. So it's our job here at the feedlot to make sure they get the correct nutrition in, the correct food in, the correct weights in. And like I said, we don't do any steroids, any additives, anything, growth hormones, nothing like that because meatCo focuses on the natural side of the meat."

The tour formed part of efforts to expose the finalists to key sectors contributing to Namibia's agricultural value chain.