Meat companies likely to sustain profitability

It’s becoming harder to track meat industry performance with only two companies, Silver Fern Farms andAlliance, reporting annually within two months of the season’s end. ANZCO will continue to report to the Registrar of Companies at the end of March, while AFFCO is no longer required to publish its result. Therefore performance comparison is a matter of studying the available annual reports and gleaning scraps of information from farmer meetings and the grapevine.

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Demographics alter consumer demand patterns

Demographic changes will present challenges for the red meat sector in spite of apparently unstoppable world population growth. Several speakers at the Red Meat Sector Conference made reference to the possible effects of these changes over the next 40 years, some of which will be positive, like the growth of the Indian and Chinese middle class, and others negative.

Current season better than last

After what all processors termed a challenging season last year, the mood this season is decidedly more buoyant after a solid first four months when dry weather throughout the country produced good stock flows. Regular rain since early February in the main farming regions has slowed things down a bit, but the onset of autumn and the dairy cow cull will ensure reasonably consistent livestock availability without any likelihood of a seasonal peak.

Meat outlook better than expected

The best news since Christmas was Meat & Wool Economic Service’s (MWES) forecast of strong increases for lamb and beef this season which reinforces what exporters have cautiously been saying about the market outlook.