Meat industry continues to do a superb job

The return of community transmission underlines the excellent performance of the whole meat industry since Covid 19 reached New Zealand nearly six months ago in March. Farmers, transport and logistics operators, sale yards, exporters and domestic processors have all combined to ensure the health and safety of participants, while meeting the demands of customers, with only a minimal number of temporary plant closures. This contrasts markedly with experience overseas in countries such as the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia and Germany with admittedly a much higher incidence of coronavirus outbreaks in the rest of the world than here.

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Meat exports sold to more than 100 countries

New Zealand’s meat exporters come in for a lot of criticism, either for selling too cheaply or for not adding value, and certainly because they can’t (or don’t) pay farmers enough for their livestock. This final criticism is presumably a direct result of the first two – the prosecution’s case argues if they sold product at a higher price or added more value, they would automatically be able to pay more for livestock.

A rare breed in the meat industry

AFFCO is establishing an encouraging trend among its management ranks with three women in senior roles as plant and technical managers. Ann Nuku and Rebecca Ogg are plant managers of AFFCO Manawatu and Horotiu respectively, while Emma Fitzgerald is the company’s Technical Manager.

Balance sheets under stress from lower livestock numbers

After the discussions between meat companies, lobbying by MIE, conferences and strategy debates, right now an eerie calm has settled over the meat industry. This is partly due to the mid winter slowdown in processing activity with only bobby calves to get excited about.

Greenlea turns 20

Waikato based Greenlea Premier Meats turns twenty this month and considering that they have just spent twenty years in the meat industry they seem to be in remarkably good shape.

 

They are currently the Westpac Waikato business of the Year taking out both the large business and supreme winner categories and their two plants are basically full on both shifts all year round. This year they will process more than 200,000 cattle and in the past five years they have invested more than $45 million in their plants.

 

Owned by the Egan family, Greenlea is not one of the big four meat companies, but belongs instead to a group of smaller players who do not seem to share the view that the meat industry is ‘broken and dysfunctional’. Neither do they regard collaboration with farmers as an issue; in fact they get plenty of support and Greenlea’s Managing Director Tony Egan reckons this is due to mutual respect. “They see us doing our job well and give us their support. It’s as simple as that”.

 

Greenlea celebrated its twenty year anniversary with a function in Hamilton, at which the company announced a $50,000 donation to Kidscan, one of the many charities supported by the Greenlea Foundation Trust. A coffee table book has been published to capture the memories and spirit of the organisation over the past twenty years.

 

Fred Hellaby, Managing Director of Auckland Meat Processors, confirms the smaller companies remain upbeat and he points to a successful collaboration with Greenlea over the past two seasons to utilise capacity efficiently. “We had some surplus capacity at the peak cow run and so collaborated with Greenlea to take their overflow.” This approach seems to make more sense than adding more capacity and is definitely in line with the goals of the Red Meat Sector strategy.

 

Greenlea also has an agreement with Firstlight Foods to process their Wagyu cattle. This collaboration is a win/win, as it enables Firstlight to focus on adding value in the market, while both companies have been able to learn from each other over the past few years.

 

So perhaps some of the answers for the industry can be found with the smaller players, who seem to be getting on with the job quite well.

North Island beef processing competition heats up

In spite of the slow start to theNorthIslandseason, currently 18% behind last year, forecasts suggest it will catch up, even exceed last season. But it is certain to come late with dairy farmers likely to keep milking as long as they can, unless we get an unseasonably cold early winter. What’s also certain is there will be plenty of processing capacity to handle it, especially when the Te Aroha rebuild is finished.