From Ulundi To Dubai: How Goat Meat Became A Premium Brand
On a small family plot in Ulundi eight years ago, five restless goats kicked up dust in a borrowed kraal. Today, the same young man who bought those animals while unemployed is shipping premium-packaged South African goat meat to Dubai and supplying high-end retailers and chefs at home.
That man is Buhlebenkosi Mbatha, founder of Incoso Goat Meat, and he has a clear mission: to pull goat meat out of the shadows of informal trade and place it confidently on supermarket shelves, restaurant menus, and international orders.
Goat farming has long been part of South Africa’s livestock sector, with demand driven largely by traditional and religious practices. Mbatha saw something else – an underdeveloped value chain and a meat that, in his view, deserved to stand alongside beef, lamb, and chicken as a mainstream commercial product.
From Five Goats To A National Value Chain
Mbatha’s journey did not begin on a farm. His father is a retired priest, his mother a retired teacher. He studied at the University of Pretoria, completing a bachelor of information sciences in publishing in 2013, followed by a postgraduate diploma in digital innovations and marketing. His early work was in communications, not cattle posts.
The turning point came around 2017 or 2018, when he was doing marketing work at an Amandla Omnotho conference in eThekwini. There, he overheard Dr Bandile Mkhize speak about the untapped potential of the goat industry.
Something clicked.
In 2018, still an unemployed graduate, he used what he had to buy five goats and started farming indigenous veld goats at his home in Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal.
“This was the very reason why I even started goat farming, not just to keep animals, but to understand the process of raising the right ones for agro-processing,” he said.
Through a farming programme supported by the Department of Agriculture, he was later exposed to Kalahari Red goats. Those years in the kraal, mixed with formal training, gave him a deep understanding of animal husbandry and the frustrations facing goat farmers who wanted to go beyond ceremonial sales.
He began training other farmers, then moved from being a primary producer to something broader: a coordinator of the goat value chain.
“My focus isn’t only just goat farming, but to ensure that goat farmers are considered commercially for products to be sold in mainstream retail stores like supermarkets, restaurants and butcheries,” he said.
Marketing Mind Meets Meat Business
Mbatha’s marketing training shaped how he saw goats – not only as livestock, but as a brand waiting to be defined. Where many saw animals tied to ritual slaughter and family feasts, he saw a commodity for local and export markets.
“My job and interests were on how we can rebrand goats to be more on the commodity side of the economy of the country,” he explained.
That thinking led to Incoso Goat Meat, founded in 2022. The company’s core idea is simple but ambitious: use coordinated breeding, careful processing, and strong branding to turn goat meat into a consistent, retail-ready product – and sell it across South Africa and in export markets such as Dubai.
Today, Mbatha no longer just raises his own herd. He buys live goats from farmers through the Qhakaza Goat Farmers Association and works with them to meet specific standards. The animals become raw material for a growing range of meat products, from fresh cuts to value-added items.
FFA Explainer:
The goat meat value chain covers everything from breeding and raising animals, to slaughter, processing, packaging, marketing, and distribution. When farmers plug into a coordinated value chain, they can earn more than from once-off informal sales, and buyers receive predictable volume and quality.
Inside Incoso: Quality Control And Premium Packaging
Incoso Goat Meat has built its model on strict selection and control. Age and breed matter. So does what happens at the abattoir, and what the meat looks like when it reaches the shelf.
Mbatha explains that the company outsources slaughtering to a mix of commercial and small abattoirs, but guards its processes closely.
“The animals are selected according to age and breed, after which we guide the abattoir on its processing procedures, which form part of our intellectual property and standard operating procedures,” he said.
Once slaughtered, cutting and packaging happen in-house. This is where his branding background shows.
“Our packaging is our signature and has been celebrated by all retailers, brand design, and to preserve the meat over a long time,” he said.
He insists that Incoso’s approach to sourcing has solved one of the common complaints consumers raise about goat meat – a strong smell.
“We make sure the animals we buy from farmers are those reserved for food production and not breeding, hence we’ve never worried about odour or smells people worry about,” he said.
That level of control is the result of years of trial and error while he was still a hands-on farmer. Those tests now live in Incoso’s internal procedures rather than just in his notebook.
From Stew To Wors: A New Product Range
Incoso does not only sell carcasses. The company has steadily expanded its range, turning goat into a versatile ingredient for home cooks and professional kitchens.
On the fresh meat side, Incoso offers whole carcasses, stewing cuts, chops, mince, wors, and offal. The team is also experimenting with processed products such as goat meat salami and biltong – the kind of items that can slip easily into mainstream snacking and deli aisles.
Nothing goes to waste. Skins are sold to tanneries that make products like bags and children’s shoes, giving farmers and the business an extra income stream and keeping more value within the chain.
This kind of product diversification echoes efforts in Zimbabwe, where goat farmers in districts such as Gokwe and Mwenezi are beginning to add simple processing and packaging to their operations. Local development officers say smallholders who move from selling a single live goat at the roadside to supplying chilled cuts to butcheries often earn more predictable income. That aligns with Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 1, which calls for increased value addition across livestock chains.
Winning Over Retailers, Chefs, And Hotels
Incoso’s positioning is clear: it operates as a wholesaler and brand that understands both farmers and the formal market. On one side, it works with primary producers; on the other, it serves retailers and the hospitality industry.
The company’s customer base now includes Jackson’s Real Food Market and Food Lovers Market stores in Gauteng, The Harv Table by chef Leko Madlala, Hlope Butcheries in Pietermaritzburg, hotels in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, and a network of private chefs and caterers.
Mbatha has also nurtured a growing reseller network in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, with new networks being set up in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. These resellers help move packaged goat meat into communities and smaller outlets that major chains may not immediately reach.
To shift mindsets, Incoso leans on storytelling as much as on cold storage. Through its YouTube channel, Mbatha hosts a celebrity and a guest chef each month, challenging them to cook with Incoso meat.
In one episode, he stands alongside celebrity singer Thobekile Isidudla saseThekwini and private chef Thole Mathe, discussing cuts and spices as they prepare goat dishes. The goal is simple: show audiences that goat belongs in everyday cooking, not just on special days.
For Zimbabwean readers wondering how this applies at home, the gap – and opportunity – is similar. Most goat meat in rural districts moves through family ceremonies, informal traders, and bus-stop auctions. Yet urban butchers in Harare and Bulawayo quietly report steady demand from customers looking for consistent, well-presented goat cuts. A brand that can coordinate farmers in areas like Matabeleland South, assure quality, and present attractive packaging could follow a path similar to Incoso’s, while supporting the livestock and value addition goals of AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Breaking Misconceptions, Crossing Borders
For all its cultural weight, goat meat still suffers from image problems in formal markets. Mbatha says goats are often associated with African cultural and Asian religious practices, which has reinforced the idea that demand is seasonal, informal, and difficult to structure.
Much of the trade still happens outside formal supply chains, with limited investment in abattoirs, storage, and marketing tailored to goat.
Incoso is trying to rewrite that story. By profiling goat meat as a reliable commercial commodity – rather than a niche ethnic product – the company wants retailers to see it as shelf-worthy.
That shift is already stretching beyond South Africa’s borders. Mbatha says Incoso has secured an export deal for Dubai through an international importer based in the United Arab Emirates. The parties are bound by non-disclosure agreements, so names are off the record, but the message is clear: there is a global appetite for well-processed, well-branded African goat meat.
FFA Explainer:
Export deals in livestock products typically require strict animal health standards, traceability, and consistency of supply. When smallholders plug into an organised exporter, they can benefit from higher-value markets without individually handling complex paperwork or logistics.
This is where Mbatha’s role as a value-chain coordinator matters. By helping farmers breed and raise animals to Incoso’s specifications, he links rural kraals to urban fridges and international cargo holds.
Lessons For Aspiring Agripreneurs
Mbatha is candid about the grind behind the glossy packaging. Goat meat processing is capital-hungry, regulated, and dependent on cold-chain infrastructure that can be fragile in many parts of Southern Africa.
Still, he believes that focus, discipline, and numbers-driven decisions can carry an agripreneur far.
“Develop thick skin and learn from failure. Stick to your vision. Know your numbers. Business is about certainty, not just passion,” he said.
He also has a message for overwhelmed founders.
“Become good at what you do. You do not have to do everything yourself,” he said, encouraging business owners to delegate when needed and build teams that can handle specialised parts of the operation.
For goat farmers in Zimbabwe and across the region, his story offers a template: start with understanding the animal, then learn what formal buyers need, and finally, organise collectively to meet that demand. Farmer groups already forming in districts such as Chikomba, Lupane, and Mutare could, with the right support, evolve into supply hubs for branded goat meat targeting supermarkets and hospitality businesses.
That kind of shift would not only boost incomes, but also align with national goals to increase agro-processing, improve food security, and create dignified rural jobs for women and youth. It’s one way to move from selling a goat to paying school fees, building a brick house, or investing in irrigation.
On most days, though, Mbatha’s focus is much more immediate: checking animals, phoning farmers, signing off on packaging runs, and pitching to yet another retailer who still thinks goat meat belongs only at the back of the butchery.
If the journey from Ulundi to Dubai is anything to go by, those conversations are getting easier. And somewhere, a young farmer counting their first five goats might be watching Incoso’s videos, planning the next value chain.
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