Namcor's 'fowl' play costs guano company N$50 000

A company profiting from the harvest of guano claims to have lost N$53 550 after a containment buoy owned by the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) collided with a guano island structure in Walvis Bay.The Atlantic Guano Syndicate makes N$15 000 per tonne of guano, which is the excrement of seabirds. Director Wilfried Groenewald is now gunning for Namcor in the Windhoek High Court, and claimed the guano island structure owned by the company was damaged by a floating barrier used for controlling spills or debris in the water. He received this information in November 2023 via WhatsApp from a tour operator, court papers read.Groenewald&#039;s company lost income because the structure was partially unusable by the birds. Additionally, repair activities disturbed the birds, leading to less guano being deposited on the structure.Total damagesDuring inspection, Atlantic found the buoy tangled around the structure&#039;s support beams, resulting in damages, he said. The materials to stabilise the remaining structure amounted to N$95 525, while labour costs for stabilisation and the replacement of the damaged area cost N$30 737 and N$231 841 respectively, he claimed. The total damages amounted to N$365 769, Groenewald noted.In the company&#039;s particulars of claim, it highlighted that the current market value of guano is N$15 000 per tonne. The total loss of income over 12 months amounts to N$53 550, as that structure can collect about 3.57 tonnes of guano a year.The case has been postponed to 9 July for a status hearing. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser because it contains high levels of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, which are essential for plant growth. It has also been used, to a lesser extent, in the production of gunpowder and other explosives.The guano is cleaned in Swakopmund to remove feathers and debris, ground into a powder and exported to Belgium for US$285 (about N$5 250) per tonne. Atlantic&#039;s entire platform collects approximately 650 tonnes of guano annually.

Namcor's 'fowl' play costs guano company N$50 000

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-04-28

Please login to leave a comment

Namcor's 'fowl' play costs guano company N$50 000

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-04-28

Please login to leave a comment

Login