AGRA AND MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND TOURISM WILDLIFE AUCTION RESULTS
Published: 01 Aug 2014 

All the buffalo, eland, sable antelope and giraffe that were on sale at the wildlife auction of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), on Thursday, 31 July 2014, were sold. It was a catalogue auction hosted by Agra at the Safari Hotel and Conference Centre. 

A total of 79 buffaloes were sold for an average price of N$114 430 and a highest price of N$300 000 paid for a bull. The buffaloes, which were, due to Namibian law, not available for sale to Namibian farmers, were bought by three South African buyers, Oryx Management Services, André Els Safaris and MW de Jager. 

Four sable antelopes were for sale. The highest price paid for sable was N$90 000, followed by N$70 000 and two sables sold for N$50 000 each. Four giraffe breeding groups of five each, a total of twenty giraffes, were sold for an average price of N$12 500 per animal. Eland breeding groups were sold in groups of 10 and achieved a price per animal of N$5 500 for two groups and N$6 000 for three groups, thus an average price of N$5 800 each for the fifty eland. The sable, giraffe and eland were not available for South African buyers and were bought by local farmers. 

The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Honorable Uahekua Herunga, opened the event. In his address he attributed the offer at the auction to good conservation practices. “Sale of live animals is not only one of the direct sources of income from the wildlife industry but it also contributes to conservation by increasing the distribution range and creation of meta-populations across the range”, he said. 

He mentioned that the proceeds of the auction, which amounted to a total turnover of N$10,6 million, will be paid into a special fund, the Game Products Trust Fund, which is invested into conservation and community development programmes. Minister Herunga was accompanied by his counterpart, Hon. Josue Rodrique Ngouonimba, the Minister of Tourism and Environment of the Republic of the Congo and his delegation, as part of an agreement of cooperation between this ministry and Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism to share information and expertise with each other. 

Auctioneer Deon Klopper commended the Ministry of Environment and Tourism on the quality of the buffaloes, which could be seen by means of a slide show with pictures of the animals in the bomas. The ministry as well as the buyers complimented Agra on the way the auction was organised and conducted within a short period of time.