Silver Fern Farms

So, I mean, the U.S. has 350 million relatively high-income consumers.

And so for companies like, well, Zespri or Fonterra, Silver Fern Farms, this is like a key export market because you have high income consumers and New Zealand exports are focused on high value products.

We're not going to beat anyone with like low labor costs.

We have to sell products that are considered high quality.

And out of uni, I actually went into the production side of things.

So I spent some time at Silver Fern Farms.

It was PPCS back then.

And did a bit of, got fed up of that.

I'll give you the abbreviated version, but I essentially was lying on a couch one night and got rung up and asked to go to a meeting.

Sheep farming wasn't going very well, sheep and beef farming, and there was a group of farmers that wanted to drive some change through bringing our two farmer-owned cooperatives, Silver Fern Farms and Alliance, together.

And I got involved in that cause, and that was, yeah, so completely unexpected.

But I really found I enjoyed the advocacy, had a bit of an aptitude for it.

owned

by Silver Fern Farms and Yeely that haven't got someone with Asian connections or Asian descent necessarily as the CEO.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, you're right.

Carfields, your trusted partner on the land.

Well, if you were listening to Countrywide Connect when we were live from the Red Meat Sector Conference, you would have heard us speak to the former CEO of Silver Fern Farms, and currently the chair of a group called the Dairy Beef Opportunities Program.

And this is around how we get sort of an interlinking chain between a dairy farmer and finisher.

And of course, the important person in the middle is the calf rearer and realizing value and being able to understand the importance of the information that is going along with that calf through to rearing.

Yeah, look, just, uh, catching up with a few people down here.

Um, had a meeting with Silver Fern Farms, uh, this morning about some, uh, stuff around the event and some other things we're looking at going forward with, um, uh, you know, around the, uh, dinner and that that we've done in the past.

Um, we're at the stage now, we're actually, uh, moving away and, uh, forming a charitable trust and, uh, looking at other opportunities, uh, with regard to adding to that, so.

Yeah.

Wow

... you're a very ambitious man.

He's down here, uh, Hamish, touting for business with the likes of Silver Fern Farms.

He's always-

What about the Pariora freezing works? I believe

they're not enough livestock to kill, is that correct? Yeah, look, it's a real shame, but Silver Fern Farms, who runs Pariora, have had to lay off a couple of chains or not start them normally, just a lack of livestock.

I mean, we've seen lamb numbers go down and down, new numbers go down and down over the years, and it's going to come home and rest at some stage, and unfortunately it's hitting periora at the moment.

A lot of competition between our red meat companies.

Silver Fern Farms used to be a cooperative.

It's now 50% plus owned by the Chinese, likewise with Alliance.

Now the Dawn Meats from Ireland have come in and bought that.

There's a brand name.

That's Silver Fern Farms probably.

Anyway, uh, the producer.

Um, hey, just quickly before you go, uh, interest rates.

Yes, exactly.

That the biggest employer in town is still operational can be put down to a bit of luck and a whole lot of innovation from Chinese-owned Silver Fern Farms.

So I'm Rebecca Coote and I am the section manager in charge of beef operations here at Finnegan.

It's Monday morning and after getting kitted up in sterile protective gear, Rebecca is walking me through the plant.