Red meat exports slump, thanks to China
Weaker pricing and demand from China continue to impact New Zealand red meat export earnings.
Silver Fern Farms is giving weekly reports to its suppliers to keep them abreast of what it describes as a ‘dynamic situation in China and one that could change very quickly’.
Chief executive Simon Limmer says the coronavirus situation has not eased, but believes that it essentially a matter of time before the flow of product to consumers’ returns to normal.
He says SFF staff in China report small signs that the country is retuning back to normal with more people starting to come back to work, after their extended Chinese New Year break.
“Our customers in China are working closely with us in an attempt to smooth the flow of product through to them and on to consumers,” Limmer told Rural News.
“While some product is starting to move through to the end of the supply chain, things are not back to normal. We are seeing more people return to retail shopping and cooking at home, but it is clear the restaurant/foodservice sector in China will take a while to recover.”
Limmer says port congestion in China is having a downstream impact on the shipping lines that don’t have confidence in their ability to unload containers.
He says this is causing shipments to fall out of schedule, shipping lines to drop containers at other Asian ports and in some cases to cancel sailings to China.
“This is pushing the ‘bottleneck’ back onto NZ ports and exporters,” he says.
Limmer says the tourism sector globally has been hit by fewer tourists traveling from China and says this has had an impact largely on beef steak cuts. He says demand is particularly soft for these prime cuts and elevated production levels from here have the potential to further depress pricing and farmgate returns.
“Other markets globally have seen increased volumes of product flow through to them. To some extent this is normal for sales immediately following the China New Year consumption period, though the volumes diverted into other Asian markets and the USA have certainly been elevated by Coronavirus.
“It’s important to remember that China has become a significant destination for most meat exporters from around the world and therefore many countries are facing the same challenges as we are.
The increased volume being diverted into other global markets is putting downward pressure on pricing.”
Limmer says, so far, SFF have been able to balance the market disruption with the dry conditions across the country so that its plants can keep running to capacity. He says they have also adapted their market mix and created storage capacity to maximise processing capacity and ensure the fastest flow of product through the system and into markets.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has informed staff it will cut 391 jobs following a consultation period.
New Zealand farmers are committed to making their businesses more resilient to climate change and are embracing innovation to help them do so.
Atiamuri farmers Paul and Lesley Grey never gave up their dream of owning their own farm – and in 2020, that dream came true.
OPINION: This old mutt well remembers the wailing, whining and gnashing of teeth by former West Coast MP and Labour…
OPINION: Your canine crusader gets a little fed up with the some in media, union hacks, opposition politicians and hard-core…