Common sense and willingness to compromise would help meat industry

All the predictions of imminent doom for the red meat sector suggest it is a basket case with little hope of redemption. Dairy gets all the favourable headlines and this is fully deserved in the light of its performance since the early years of this century. But it ignores the meat industry’s $8 billion contribution to exports and the substantial farm profitability improvement over the same period, especially taking Beef + Lamb’s improved prediction for this season.

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Drought hammers stock numbers and puts pressure on procurement prices

Last summer’s drought has badly affected breeding numbers and next season’s lamb and beef cattle numbers. The far north’s ewe population was particularly heavily hit, while the breeding cow herd in the Taranaki – Manawatu region was 11% down purely because of the drought.

Meat industry’s high debt levels must concern banks

The levels of debt carried by at least some of the major meat companies must be causing concern to the bank syndicates that are providing external working capital to fund their operations. In total the big three have bank debts of a minimum of nearly $750 million.