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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Falling co-product prices prompt changes

The sale of Wallace Group’s tanning, rendering and composting operations in the Waikato, Northland and Manawatu is the latest step in the consolidation process of what is often termed the fifth quarter of the meat industry. Since it began in the late nineteenth century the industry has had to invest significant capital in facilities which were not just designed to process animals for meat production, but also to dispose of the parts of the carcase left over from its primary purpose, otherwise known as by-products or more politely co-products.  

Meat industry in better shape today to cope with downturn

When I started to trawl through possible topics to write about this week, I had the bright idea it might be worth asking meat processors what contingency plans they have in place in case an employee, more particularly one on the processing floor, tests positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus. So far my research suggests it’s not yet an issue that has received a great deal of consideration by many companies, although it’s certainly on their radar.

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.