increase font size
SFF chairman Rob Hewett with Ravensdown director and Dargaville dairy farmer Kate Alexander at the NZ Co-op business leaders forum in Auckland.
The red meat sector is too commodity-focused and must move further up the value chain, says Silver Fern Farms chairman Rob Hewett.
He told the recent NZ Co-op business leaders’ forum in Auckland that unless the industry moves away from commodities it risks being squashed by chicken and pork.
“Chicken and pork are cheap commodity items that have got cheaper per kilo over the last 20 to 30 years,” he says.
“The days of ‘winner, winner – chicken dinner’, when there was a special occasion for a chicken meal, are long gone; they are now our competitors.”
Hewett says a Barcelona housewife going down a supermarket aisle is no longer wondering whether it will be lamb chops or roast for dinner, but whether she will buy chicken or pork or something else for the kids tonight.
To compete in that sector red meat companies need to be “ruthlessly efficient”.
“To drive costs out of your business you’ve got to be right on top of your yields, be relentless about it and do it every day. The industry in NZ is good at that but there’s plenty of opportunity to improve.”
For SFF, 80% of its business fits into the commodity sector and Hewett concedes it can never get out of some products. “It’s hard to add more value to pelts and hides, other than having a pelt or a hide.”
Chilled products make up 15% of SFF’s business; they boost gross profit by 20-25%. Moving from chilled to value added products adds a further 25% to profit margins.
Hewett says SFF hopes to have 10% of total sales in value added by 2020 (this is now 5%).
Everything starts with the consumer for SFF: understanding what the consumer wants and then working that back to what the farmer does inside the farmgate is critical to extracting value.
“For too long the industry has been focused on product kill and then worry about selling it later on,” Hewett says.
Canterbury farmer Andy Macfarlane has been appointed to the board of AgriZeroNZ, the public-private partnership designed to accelerate the development and deployment of emissions reduction tools for New Zealand farmers.
As dairy farmers lock in plans for the upcoming mating season, a partnership between Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms has been formed with the aim of making it simpler to create additional value from calves not entering the replacement herd.
Farmer owned co-operative Ravensdown has signed a two-year naming rights sponsorship of the Canterbury A&P Show.
Nominations are now open for two directorships on the Ravensdown Board and will close at 5pm, Friday 24 July 2026.
For Jane Smith, becoming a Ravensdown director has been a way she can actively contribute to something quite personal to her - protecting and strengthening a co-operative she deeply believes in.
Oamaru-based livestock handling specialist Te Pari has bought Combi Clamp, the New Zealand manufacturer of Combi Clamp manual sheep handlers.
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has admitted that a scheme bringing workers from Pacific nations to work on orchards has become too hard to navigate but says changes are coming.
A new app designed in New Zealand aims to help sheep, beef and deer farmers capture, analyse and use body condition score data more effectively.
Canterbury farmer Andy Macfarlane has been appointed to the board of AgriZeroNZ, the public-private partnership designed to accelerate the development and deployment of emissions reduction tools for New Zealand farmers.
For over 50 years Mel Ewers has been supporting the apple sector navigate through compliance and quality assurance issues.
The apple sector is enjoying a bumper harvest season.
A fair question has been raised about how member-funded organisations should conduct themselves when taking a public position on any…
OPINION: It really is getting harder to lampoon government bureaucrats when they do such a good job of it themselves.…
