MIA Chief Executive Nick Beeby on Meat Industry Challenges and Cooperation

Beeby, who took over as CEO in July this year, says he’s loving his new role working with the meat processors, understanding their challenges and helping them navigate these.

Before joining MIA, Beeby was CEO of the NZ Meat Board and before that the general manager, market development with Beef+Lamb NZ.

He says nowadays there is a real common understanding of the nature of the challenges and that requires the industry as a whole to work together.

“Some of the challenges are too big for individual companies to navigate,” he told Rural News.

Beeby says NZ processors are working more with like-minded countries that have similar production systems. Ireland is a good example of this. Beeby says the fact that NZ is starting to do that is a sign that the industry here is maturing.

Going forward, Beeby says there is not one particular factor that will make the gains that the industry is seeking.

“You can’t isolate one thing like science or product development or anything like that. Everything has to work together for our sector to be successful and that includes the human element as well,” he says.

In this regard, he points to the recent MIA conference where a meat carcass was ‘disassembled’ on stage before an audience of more than 300 people.

Beeby says it showed the absolute skill and passion of a lamb boner meticulously turning a carcass into individual cuts for different markets, and create huge value beyond just selling an individual carcass.

“This dramatically highlighted and the impact that one person can have on the value of the overall carcass. What I think is so fascinating about the industry is that it takes everything - science, product development and companies working together to maximise the value of as lamb carcass,” he says.

Beeby says the red meat industry is the largest manufacturing group in NZ employing more than 25,000 people and plays a crucial role in the economy of rural areas. He says while it’s important to get this message out to politicians and decision makers in Wellington, the industry needs to play a bigger role in getting this out to the wider public and highlight the skills of the people who work in it.