Meat Naturally Pty

As Africa’s population grows, so too does the need for sustainable and efficient protein production that helps to address food insecurity in the region and alleviates pressure on vulnerable natural capital. In South Africa, rangelands are being devastated by the spread of non-edible invasive plants, poor grazing management and disruption of the predator-prey balance from killing of predators. Moreover, communal farmers lack market accessibility, supplying only 5% of the meat market while owning roughly 50% of the livestock.

The company

Meat Naturally Pty, a for-profit social enterprise, works with partners to provide livestock production and market access incentives for communal stock-farmers who are rewarded for agreeing to and applying sustainable environmental grazing and wildlife-friendly management practices. Having established the business successfully in South Africa, Meat Naturally is now supporting a partnership between Conservation International and the Peace Parks Foundation to expand to communities adjacent to Trans-frontier Conservation Areas in five Southern African countries: South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho and Zambia.

Meat Naturally provides the following services to communal stock farmers and NGOs:

• Livestock production support: sourcing and implementation of reliable vaccinations, farm management equipment, and livestock transport
• Market access: via facilitation of local mobile auctions in communal lands where farmers have implemented conservation agreements regarding land management and wildlife conservation; and mobile abattoirs to facilitate meat sales
• Consulting and training services: implementation and training around conservation agreements in the form of grazing planning, stock improvement initiatives, etc.

The investment

Financing from CI Ventures totaling US$ 140,000 will be used by the company as working capital to enable the growth of the existing, profitable mobile cattle auction operations in South Africa.

The impact

Meat Naturally’s five-year business plan aims to restore 1 million hectares of degraded rangeland and provide a scalable vehicle for 15,000 African communal farmers to enter a growing niche market for grass fed and sustainably produced meat and wool. Additionally, their research and development activities aim to pioneer new mobile abattoir technology and unlock carbon finance for farmers for the reduced greenhouse gas emissions resulting from their improved rangeland management.