Witvlei Meat, the second largest Namibian beef exporter to Norway, claimed that rivals Meatco and Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) have attempted to prevent the smaller company from exporting beef to Norway.

"Meatco and BMC had placed more than 2,700 tonnes of meat in Norway on a 50:50 basis - not anticipating to share the market with any competition," according to   Witvlei's managing director, Hendri Badenhorst on Friday (Apr 9). However, no documents were made available by Witvlei Meat to provide proof of this allegation.

Witvlei Meat had complained to both the Norwegian and Namibian competition commissions about the alleged disadvantage.

Norway shot down the complaint, as Norwegian Competition Authority (NCA) found no grounds that the alleged conduct has infringed Norwegian competition law, based on the provided information.

The Namibian authority is still looking into the matter.

For the last ten years Namibia and Botswana have shared an annual 2,700-tonne beef export quota to Norway. The quota was the result of negotiations by Meatco and BMC.

They do not export directly to Norway but Norwegian trading companies buy the Namibian and Botswana meat on a first-come, first-served basis, with Norway setting an annual quota of meat imports.

Witvlei was granted, on the first-come, first-served principle, just over 400 tonnes, representing about 20% of its annual production for 2009. Meatco was granted 955 tonnes by Norway, or roughly 4% of its annual production.

Namibia recently applied to Norway to increase the existing annual quota to 4,000 tonnes. However, Witvlei Meat in January withdrew its support for the higher beef quota application because "any increase would potentially only benefit Meatco and BMC," according to the company's statement.

A Norwegian delegation will visit Namibia in about 10 days to discuss the 4,000-tonne application.