New era for breeding company

The CRV Bellevue Production and Logistics Centre, based on the outskirts of Hamilton, is a purpose-built facility which future-proofs the company with additional capacity to meet the market's growing demand for its bovine semen products.

The centre houses a semen collection facility, a semen processing laboratory, storage space for export and domestic products, a warehouse with farmer AI banks, and 38ha of grazing paddocks.

CRV Ambreed managing director Angus Haslett says the facility was developed to the highest standards required to ensure the business meets its domestic and export compliance, biosecurity requirements and animal welfare standards.

"A key driver behind development of our new centre is the ability of CRV Ambreed to continue meeting increasingly stringent biosecurity requirements while also protecting the quality of CRV Ambreed products," he says.

"The move to this new facility ensures our business continues to meet the changing needs of the dairy industry, both within New Zealand and around the world. Compliance standards are continuously being scrutinised by Government authorities, and our new facility allows us to meet the highest standards and grow our export markets."

CRV Ambreed is part of the third largest artificial breeding company in the world with around 25% market share in New Zealand. It exports semen to South America, South Africa, Australia, parts of North America, the UK and Ireland.

Currently close to 1.8 million straws of semen are distributed across New Zealand and exported to overseas markets from its facilities each year.

"We had been operating out of our previous site since CRV Ambreed was first established 45 years ago. As the company grew, we evolved our infrastructure to adjust to that growth, but never had a truly purpose built facility until now," says Haslett.