PGP project suggests meat industry ready to co-operate, says Barber

Allan BarberYesterday’s announcement of the Red Meat PGP Collaboration Programme for Greater Farmer Profitability at a total investment of $65 million is fantastic news for the whole industry, says meat industry commentator Allan Barber. The key words are ‘collaboration’ and ‘farmer profitability’, he writes.

The first of these has usually been notable by its absence, while the second combination of words has only been evident at irregular intervals.

Half the funding will be made available from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI)’s Primary Growth partnership fund, while 30 percent will come from farmers through Beef & Lamb New Zealand Ltd (B+LNZ) and Meat Board reserves and the balance from six meat companies, two banks and Deloitte.

B+LNZ’s contribution is contingent on levy paying farmers voting in support of the proposal at its annual meeting on 8 March. Although nothing is ever certain, it would be a shock if this support wasn’t forthcoming, because the programme represents a significant step towards fulfilling the objectives of the Red Meat Sector Strategy conducted by Deloitte and completed nearly two years ago.

The aim of the programme is to lift the performance of all farmers to match that of the best performers which was identified in the strategy as the best way of improving industry profitability. There is a significant gap between the top and bottom performers in farming methods and profitability. If this gap can be closed the gains for the sector and New Zealand are enormous.

The participation of the six meat processors – AFFCO, Alliance, ANZCO, Blue Sky, Progressive Meats and Silver Fern Farms – is as meaningful as it is welcome. These are the key sheepmeat processors which is recognition that it is the sheep meat sector in particular where the greatest gains are to be made. However, the focus behind the farm gate shouldn’t obscure the fact that there are substantial gains to be made from greater collaboration in the market place.

A striking aspect of yesterday’s press releases by Ministry of Primary Industries, B+LNZ, Alliance and Silver Fern Farms (SFF) was the difference in tone between the statements by the two meat companies and the enthusiasm with which Beef & Lamb is greeting the opportunity.

The tone of SFF’s press release was less than enthusiastic, emphasising the need for a levy vote in support before the programme could begin and the care taken to ensure this programme did not cut across SFF’s Farm IQ programme which was the first project out of the blocks.

In spite of a first sentence which confirmed SFF’s support for the collaboration programme, the main impression from the statement was that the company was a somewhat unwilling participant and would be guided by the farmers’ decision. If this happened not to be supportive, I was left with the feeling SFF would not be particularly upset.

In comparison with Keith Cooper’s guarded support for the programme, Alliance chief executive Grant Cuff was positively euphoric, stating:

“This new coordinated collaborative initiative will enhance the knowledge and capability in the sheep and beef sector and help improve farm performance, productivity and profitability.

“New Zealand can make significant gains in its export earnings by ensuring all parts of the value chain collaborate so suppliers are using the best available farm and business management practice and tools.

“This initiative is an important step in the implementation of the Red Meat Sector Strategy. We’re supportive of any steps to lift the industry’s game and improve on-farm profitability.”

After my recent call for a sheep meat strategy, I am cheered by this progress. Admittedly, results won’t happen immediately, but it provides an investment over several years during which industry participants will work together for the collective good.

This must be one of the best possible outcomes for an industry which is noted more for its divisiveness than its potential to cooperate in the interest of a better future for all the parties.

Allan Barber is a meat industry commentator who writes a number of columns on the topics. He has his own blog Barber’s Meaty Issues.

Red meat industry to work together

Wayne McNee, MPI.The red meat industry has agreed to work together to promote and assist in the adoption of best practice by sheep and beef farmers, as part of a new $65 million dollar sector development project with Government co-funding.

Wayne McNee, director-general of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), has just approved a commitment of up to $32.4 million from MPI’s Primary Growth Partnership Fund (PGP) for the red meat sector’s new Collaboration for Sustainable Growth programme.

This seven-year programme will bring together a number of participants in New Zealand’s red meat sector including co-operatively owned and privately owned processing companies that together account for a substantial majority of New Zealand’s sheep and beef exports, two banks and Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd.

It aims to ensure that red meat producers consistently have access to and are able to effectively use the best-available farm and business management practices, by addressing gaps in technology transfer and ensuring stronger co-ordination between organisations and individuals working with farmers.

MPI Director General, Wayne McNee says the new PGP programme will transform the delivery of knowledge and capability within the sheep and beef sector.

“Importantly this is the most comprehensive collaboration of its type ever seen in the red meat sector, and the opportunities are very exciting. The Collaboration programme will build base capability, delivering benefits across the sector and aligned with other PGP programmes.”

The next step to establish this PGP programme is to develop the contract with the Crown and to seek farmer support for their portion of the investment. It is anticipated that once the required farmer and company approvals and contracts are in place programme delivery can begin, expected to be in the third quarter of this year.

Organisations presently in this initiative are: AFFCO, Alliance Group, ANZCO Foods, ANZ Bank, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Blue Sky Meats, Deloitte, Progressive Meats, Rabobank and Silver Fern Farms. The programme is designed to be open, enabling others to invest. Participants will establish a formal partnership to run the Collaboration programme.

Chairman of the programme’s Steering Group, Dr Scott Champion says the Collaboration programme is built on the findings of the Red Meat Sector Strategy and will deliver significantly on the Strategy’s sector best-practice theme.

“This initiative is evidence that the industry is committed to delivering on the recommendations of the sector strategy. More industry collaboration is high on the list of Strategy actions, and so to have the red meat industry focused on supporting farmers and united in this programme is of major significance. Importantly, the Strategy also underlined the returns available to all farmers by lifting productivity and management towards that of the country’s highest performing farms.”

The PGP programme comprises several elements, including investigating how farmers prefer to receive and use new information and what drives their profitability, as well as benchmarking and integrating relevant databases. New tools, services and knowledge will be packaged and delivered in a range of ways by programme partners.

“With a new awareness of what drives farm profitability, the Collaboration programme will change the sector’s focus from one that is dominated by price to one focused on performance, productivity, profitability and the factors we can control,” Champion said.

“This investment will support the sector to better control its future and ensure confidence for continued investment.”

The Red Meat Sector Strategy was jointly developed by Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Meat Industry Association, with funding support from the Government. It was released in May 2011.The Strategy identified a range of activities that, when implemented, will improve sector productivity and profitability, and provide greater certainty for participants.

 

Glamming up for the competition

The competition is heating up for the 2013 Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) Golden Lamb Awards, aka the Glammies.

More than 100 entries from across the country will be competing next year for the Grand Champion title.

The competition, sponsored by Pfizer Animal Genetics, which aims to find New Zealand’s most tender and tasty lamb is entering its seventh year and sees farmers from across the country vying for the Grand Champion title.

B+LNZ Ltd chief executive, Scott Champion, says the competition is an excellent opportunity to profile the quality product New Zealand farmers produce.

“The Glammies gives farmers a chance to showcase breed lines and demonstrate how their animal management talent and hard work in the field culminates in great tasting lamb.”

Winning the top prize is not easy; entries will first be scientifically tested at Carne Technologies to find the top 20.

From here it will be down to the tastebuds of a panel of judges at the Upper Clutha A & P Show in Wanaka on 8 March 2013, where the winner will be determined. Butchers also have an opportunity to profile their product with the Glammies Retailer of the Year Award.

The competition is supported by processing plants across the country. These include: AFFCO, Alliance Group Ltd, Ashburton Meat Processors Ltd, Auckland Meat Processors/Wilson Hellaby, Blue Sky Meats, Cabernet Foods/Kintyre Meats, Harris Meats, Land Meat NZ, Lean Meats, Silver Fern Farms, Taylor Preston/Ken Wilson Meats.

Meat industry lacks leadership according to Cooke

The National Meat Workers Union’s General Secretary Grahame Cooke stated last Monday the large loss published by Alliance Group would be the first of several for the 2012 year. His point is fairly accurate, confirmed by Silver Fern Farms’ loss announced on Tuesday, writes industry commentator Allan Barber.

Of the other companies ANZCO and Blue Sky Meats will file their results with the Companies Office at the end of March. AFFCO is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Talley’s and doesn’t disclose its results, although the Meat Workers Union says (optimistically) these will be horrendous because of the lock out earlier this year. AFFCO’s results may not be as bad as all that because of the lack of a peak kill.

Cooke’s next point was the losses would inevitably lead to more industry rationalisation; this in turn would cause job losses for the meat workers who have already been affected by several plant closures in recent years. Job and earnings security suffered from fewer stock numbers and shorter season with workers being paid piece rates for shorter shifts; also higher average weights mean better productivity which is true for lambs, but not cattle.

His final point was about the lack of industry leadership in spite of the fact there are a number of good individual companies, all competing vigorously with each other. Cooke said the meat industry has not changed in the last fifty years with poor marketing and plant closures quickly followed by the addition of more capacity. He described the industry graphically as behaving like a cow with its head chopped off.

A look at the Union’s website provides more information on this topic: plant capacity has increased over the past decade with new plants, rebuilds and upgrades at nine plants across the country as well as capacity increases at several more. The Union believes the Government must initiate a ‘meat summit’ to address this.

So the questions are whether Cooke is correct or the industry is behaving in a perfectly rational manner.

My first reaction is the Government will never initiate a summit, almost certainly just another talkfest, because it realises the industry has a functioning commercial model. It competes in a global market and government should never interfere with privately owned businesses, provided they comply with the law. The meat industry has its own industry body, the MIA, which deals with all sorts of industry issues, but not those which impinge on competition between its members.

In addition, land use changes dictated by relative sector profitability will continue to occur regardless. The government would not be wise to get involved in picking winners or hobbling one sector’s ability to adjust its processing facilities.

My next reaction is meat processors and exporters are not the whole industry. There is a value chain which starts behind the farm gate and finishes in restaurants or consumers’ homes. The Red Meat Sector Strategy, FarmIQ and other company based initiatives attempt to define what can be done to join links in the value chain so they contribute to higher, more consistent returns. But it’s up to the farmers to produce to these specifications.

Meat exporters have done a great job over recent years to convert yesterday’s freezing industry into a sophisticated red meat member of the food industry, while also expanding into high value medical and other non-food product areas. More can always be done, but the industry has moved light years from the age of subsidies.

However, this process of modernisation has of necessity been achieved at a cost to overall jobs and terms of employment. The older plants were inefficient and built to service a different industry structure from a previous age. The period following deregulation and more particularly the removal of subsidies saw many farmers in serious financial straits, so their only option was to change farming practice or land use or sell. An unavoidable, even desirable, outcome was a big decline in sheep and prime beef numbers, offset to some extent by the growth in the dairy industry and the US manufacturing beef market.

Owen Poole made the point to me the losses are a sheepmeat problem and Alliance has responded by making the appropriate plant decisions, such as closure of Mataura sheepmeat processing, doubling Mataura’s beef capacity, increased venison processing at Smithfield and rendering at Lorneville. Keith Cooper also confirmed his satisfaction with SFF’s footprint in relation to livestock volumes, having already taken some tough capacity decisions.

This emphasises the regular requirement for new plant configurations to meet the demands of the market place and consequently the workforce must adapt as well. My experience tells me the meat industry does a pretty good job of responding to changes in market conditions, while generally trying to keep its workforce employed. But there is no future in keeping inefficient plants running to protect workers’ jobs, because these will disappear sooner rather than later.

Equally there are no prizes for leaving customer orders unsupplied when competitors are still prepared to process livestock. I certainly wouldn’t fancy the chances of the industry leader who sets an example by refusing to pay the money and has to tell Tesco or Marks and Spencer his company can’t supply because the stock costs too much this week.

Leadership is not as simple as it appears.

The item has appeared in NZ Farmers Weekly and at Allan Barber’s blog Barber’s Meaty Issues.

Season just ended could produce messy results, says Barber

The season just ended could produce messy results, according to meat industry commentator Allan Barber.

The two largest processors and exporters, Silver Fern Farms and Alliance, have captured the headlines in the last couple of weeks.

Hot on the heels of its announced intention to close its sheepmeat chain at Mataura, Alliance has come out with an offer to suppliers of $20 in November per lamb contracted before the end of October.

From the other cooperative camp Keith Cooper, chief executive of Silver Fern Farms, last week sent an email out to suppliers which highlighted the disappointing financial result for the year ended 30 September because of the exchange rate and declining sheepmeat values in January and February not being reflected in procurement prices.

The final results will be declared in about two months when the market will be able to see just how disappointing the performance of the two companies actually was. Rumours of multi-million dollar losses have been prevalent, but rumour is just what they are until we see the actual figures. There is no doubt the problem has been almost entirely with sheepmeat in spite of the exchange rate, because exporters have been far more successful at reining in beef procurement costs.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to work out that the shortage of lambs for Mataura and the procurement competition are just two aspects of the same problem. The lowest national lamb kill for 51 years at 18.6 million, 15 percent down on the five year average will have made it very difficult for any company to get sufficient capacity utilisation to come close to making a profit. With Alliance’s largest sheep plant outside Invercargill, Mataura just over 50 km up the road was always under threat from declining volumes.

Blue Sky Meats, which balances in March, presaged the 2011/12 season’s problems in its declared annual result – a pre-tax loss of $604,000 and no dividend paid. The company termed this the most disappointing result in its history and drew attention to the excessive prices paid for stock through the turn of the year, both because of the high dollar and the drought in Southland.

It will be interesting to see how successful Alliance will be in securing committed lambs from suppliers stimulated by the $20 cash advance. Keith Cooper’s reaction was to say Silver Fern Farms had tried it six years ago with no success because some suppliers were affronted by the implication they were short of cash and didn’t want to close out their slaughter options. He prefers to rely on the company’s suite of supply plans rather than to repeat the cash in advance offer.

In his email to suppliers, Cooper sounds quite bullish about the new season’s prospects with a ‘fully configured operating platform’ and some exciting new marketing initiatives, even being bold enough to state that realistic livestock values are being established. If that is the case, it will either be because there’s enough livestock around to satisfy all processors or he is confident Silver Fern Farm’s overhead structure is competitive enough to guarantee filling their requirements.

Either way that is a big call in spite of the gains Silver Fern Farms has made in recent years, notably the closure of the Belfast sheep chain, improvements to its Finegand sheep processing and the rebuild of Te Aroha in the heart of the dairy farming Waikato/Bay of Plenty region. There are expected to be another 1.5 million lambs, but not enough to change processing dynamics much, while the market is another factor.

The meat industry is unique in that it has to compete at both ends of its supply chain. While livestock procurement has the most obvious impact on company profitability, demand from the market is also critical. Last season’s disappointments and losses have been as much about carrying too much inventory which the market couldn’t digest as the cost of the livestock to produce it.

When companies fail to manage both ends of the chain properly, things get messy. Just how messy they were last season will become clearer at the beginning of December when Alliance and Silver Fern Farms publish their results.

Chuffed to be recognised by peers

Lamb processor Craig Hickson was “chuffed” when he learned he was to be awarded the 2012 Allflex Federated Farmers Agribusiness Person of the Year in July. Adding a new Welsh meat plant to his business portfolio this year too, makes it one to remember in his business journey.

“It’s very pleasing to be recognised by your peers,” admits the managing director of Progressive Meats.

The astute Hawke’s Bay businessman’s speciality has lain in seeking solutions for plant processes that meet modern demands and also for challenging convention. Over most of the last 40 years (up to 2007) he has been in operation, the straight speaking Hickson has deliberately steered away from direct involvement in exporting leaving others to concentrate on that while he has focused on the niche of contract processing product for exporters.

Recognised as one of the meat industry’s leaders, he holds a seat on the Meat Industry Association (MIA) council and represents industry on the boards of Beef+Lamb NZ Ltd and the New Zealand Meat Board and an assorted array of other directorships.

Born in Canada to Kiwi parents, the young Craig Hickson was moved to Waipukurau when he was three months and later, at age seven, to Havelock North. His schooling was completed at Hastings Boys High, with vacations spent working at the Hawke’s Bay Farmers Meat Company Whakatu works, before he progressed on a HBMC scholarship to Massey University. There, he graduated with a B Tech in food technology, specialising in the engineering side – which has stood him in good stead through several new plants and plant renovations since. Later, he added a BA in economics and marketing to his list of accomplishments.

However, at that stage, pure food technology was not for the young red-headed Hawke’s Bay lad. In 1975, he found himself a job at the Meat Producers Board as product development officer, before leaving in 1980 to develop his own business – a small lamb packing plant in Hastings, Progressive Meats, which opened with his wife in October 1981.

In order to satisfy customer demand for contract services over the years, the Hicksons were involved with a few others in the ownership, design, planning, contruction and operation of Lamb Packers Feilding Ltd and Progressive Gisborne Ltd – and also with Lean Meats Oamaru through a minority shareholding in Lean Meats Ltd.

Having sold their 50 percent share in Feilding and Gisborne to Bernard Matthews NZ Ltd (BM) in 2005, Hickson was part of a syndicate that bought 100 percent back again in 2007 – the same slaughter and processing plant in Gisborne, and slaughter plant in Feilding plus a further processing plant in Waipukurau – when BM decided to withdraw from New Zealand to concentrate on its UK operations.

New meat plant in Wales

Matching supply to demand is also the reason for the purchase in April this year of a small Welsh meat processing plant Cig Calon Cymru (pronounced kig kalon – like talon – kumru, roughly translated as ‘Meat from the heart of Wales’), at Crosshands, near Lllanelli in South Wales. The plant is principally a beef processor, with a small lamb line.

Hickson explained that they had been looking for a suitable processing opportunity in the area to supply lamb year round to British consumers – the British and New Zealand lamb production is largely complementary for chilled. This enables New Zealand lamb to be supplied during the December to May period, when Welsh lamb is in short-supply and then Welsh lamb during the June to November period, when New Zealand lamb is in shorter supply benefiting both sets of producers. It will go into the same packaging with the country of origin clearly labelled.

The name of the company will remain as is and the plant will continue to process beef, but the branding for CCC product is yet to be determined. The management team will include New Zealander Jim Goodall who has the role of general manager. According to Hickson, plant staff are pleased that the company will have a new lease of life, while the local farmers are “reserving their judgement”.

Federated Farmers here have welcomed the initiative as it sees the move is an example of the vertical integration called for in several recent reports and shows there is life in New Zealand’s traditional markets. However, it is not novel, maintains Hickson pointing to Silver Fern Farms’ previous ownership of Brooks of Norwich, which enabled it to process frozen cuts to retailers’ exacting specification in-market, and other New Zealand companies, such as Alliance, Affco and Anzco, which have had in-market representation for many years and, in some instances, association with local processors.

He’s pleased there’s a ‘family’ connection too. The Hicksons own a 1,500ha farm in Hawke’s Bay and the farm manager’s wife, Denise, is Welsh, hailing from St Clairs which is near where the new plant is situated.

Slow product development

Hickson has observed very slow progress of new meat product development in terms of ready-to-eat products over the past four decades since his graduation.

“The major development area has been in the form of natural cuts and portion-size,” he says.

One fundamental reason he gives for the slow development of lamb ready meals is that lamb is a relatively high priced meat as a competing ingredient. Another is the fact that the nature of lamb fat means that it solidifies at a higher temperature than beef or pork making it tricky to work with. It is best served hot or cold, not warm.

One famous product victim of the rising price of lamb was the Bernard Matthews lamb roast, a frozen product that did very well in Britain. The concept was based on the company’s technology and marketing machinery for its famous turkey roast and was so successful it led to a plant being built here in Waipukurau to manufacture the lamb version.

The product did very well until the price of lamb increased beyond what this market segment would support, he explained, and  volumes diminished to extinction. By then, BM had developed lines in chilled and frozen portion-controlled and weight-ranged lamb products for its range.

The new McDonald’s lamb burger, which has been trumpeted about recently, is one of only two examples of a commercial lamb ‘fast food’ item. The other being a doner kebab made from lamb flaps.

Contribution to processes

Hickson believes his most valuable contribution to industry has been to plant processes. Progressive Meats was at the forefront of changes to shiftwork, which though it had already been in place in the ‘follow on departments’ in plants, it was not utilised in slaughter and boning rooms. He gained union agreement in 1986, following a five week strike, just over a year before implementation in 1988.

“Shiftwork enabled small plants to be competitive, through the improved utilisation of capital,” he says.

It was its work on relationships with farmers that enabled Progressive to be the first company in 1987 to offer forward commitment arrangements for lamb supply. “At the time, other industry participants thought forward commitments were not viable and would fail,” Hickson said. But they didn’t.

Progressive was also one of the first companies to move away from the Meat Board’s grading system, which had been designed for carcase specifications, and adapt it for its own customers’ specifications for cuts.

“We talked to our farmers and encouraged them through payments to produce lambs to specification.”

After legislation changed to ban smoking in the workplace, he embarked on a lengthy court fight to establish whether a purpose-built, negatively-pressured smoking room next to the cafeteria at Progressive’s Hastings plant was outside the ‘workplace’. The challenge was lost, but had a silver lining.

“The legal wording was ambiguous and I thought, had the room been deemed not  a workplace workers would not need to change clothes to go outside for a smoke, saving time, and their smoke wouldn’t disrupt other non-smoking employees.”

In the end, the court decided the room was ‘a workplace’ and workers did need to smoke outside the building. As Hickson himself is not a smoker, in fact he says he is “vitriocally opposed”, his support surprised his employees.

“Industrial relations have never been so good as just after that court decision,” he says, adding that the union financially contributed towards the defence of the case.

Looking to the future

Looking to the future, he commented that the Red Meat Sector Strategy (RMSS) is essentially a collation and synthesis of the views of industry participants.

“It didn’t deliver anything new but it is in a coherent form and advocates the development of future business along the lines of what, in many cases, is already going on,” he says.

However, ‘competition to buy’, tends to restrict the rate of progress to that of other competing companies in the field. While there is a high degree of consensus when interviewing participants one-on-one, it is a different matter when actions are observed in the cold commercial, competitive reality, he believes.

He sees the major challenge for the industry is for pastoral sheep, beef and deer farming to be a competitive land use option (at the margin) compared  to dairying, forestry, viticulture and horticulture, among other uses.

“In 40 years, I’ve seen a dramatic change in the Hawke’s Bay Heretaunga plains, which was once prime finishing land for livestock and is now covered in apples, crops grapes, and other viticulture.”

Lifting prices is an obvious target, but is constrained by the fact that lamb is already a relatively high priced meat, he believes.

“Reduction in wastage getting the product to consumers is another target as is endeavouring to negotiate a larger share of what the consumer pays with supermarkets and food service people generally taking between 30 to 50 percent of what the consumer pays.”

“Sheep are a dual product animal and we neglect wool at our peril,” he says. ”We need to be actively seeking new applications to lift demand and hence returns, particularly for the mid-micron and strong wool,that are traditionally used in carpet making. Wool hasn’t kept pace with lambing percentage increases, or inflation and if we could arrest the decline, and reverse the trend, sheep farming will be more profitable and grow.”

During his spare time, hobbies include managing his 60 hectare farm around he and his wife’s home in Haumoana, where he keeps deer near to the house, “nice to look at and easy to keep.” He has a love of classic cars and still owns the first one he bought when he was 19, a 1954 MG TF. He plays tennis and cricket and enjoys sailing on Lake Taupo.

When asked what was his most proud moment over his career to date, Hickson paused to reflect and said he had difficulty picking one moment as they blend into each other.

“I’ve never felt as though I’ve climbed a mountain, I’ve always been on a journey.”

+++

Craig Hickson

  • 1970 to 1973 – B Tech (Food), Massey University.
  • 1973 – Management trainee at Hawke’s Bay Farmers Meat Company, Whakatu.
  • 1975 – Joined Meat Producers Board staff as product development officer. Completed BA in Economics and Marketing Victoria University.
  • 1981 – Hicksons start small meat packing house Progressive Meats.
  • 1982 – Designs , builds and commissions small venison plant alongside Progressive Meats for ‘start up’ local farmer company, East Coast Venison.
  • 1987 – Plan and design venison plant in Feilding for East Coast Venison.
  • 1987 – Design, build and commision lamb slaughter at Progressive Hastings.
  • 1990 – Takes a minority interest in Lean Meats Ltd.
  • 1993 – Takes a minority interest in Te Kuiti Meats Ltd.
  • 1994 – Buys venison plant in Hastings and, with partner John Signal, the venison plant in Feilding from Venison New Zealand (formerly East Coast Venison).
  • 1995 – Builds Lamb Packers Feilding Ltd.
  • 1998 – Builds Progressive Gisborne Ltd.
  • 1999 – Builds replacement slaughter plant at Hastings (original only 13 years old).
  • 2003 – A principal in setting up Progressive Leathers Ltd at Whakatu.
  • 2005 – Sells Feilding and Gisborne Lamb interests to Bernard Matthews.
  • 2006 – Takes a majority interest in Te Kuiti Meats Ltd.
  • 2007 – Syndicate, including Hickson, purchases Bernard Matthews NZ Ltd’s lamb-processing and exporting operations in New Zealand and renames it Ovation New Zealand Ltd (plants at Gisborne, Waipukurau and Feilding).
  • 2012 – Allflex Federated Farmers Agribusiness Person of the Year.
  • 2012 – Hicksons purchase Welsh meat processor Cig Calon Cymru.

Current directorships: Progressive Meats Ltd, Ovation New Zealand Ltd, Lean Meats Ltd,Te Kuiti Meats Ltd, Progressive Leathers Ltd, MIA Council, Beef + Lamb NZ Ltd, Meat Board Ltd, Ovita Ltd. The Hicksons also farm sheep, beef and venison on 1,500 hectares in the Maraetotara/Elsthorpe district in East Coast Hawke’s Bay.

An abridged version of this article appeared in Food New Zealand magazine (October/November 2012).

 

First meat plant introduces new carcase inspections

In early September, Affco’s Imlay meat processing plant in Whanganui became the first plant to introduce the new ‘Ovine Post-Mortem Inspection’ regime.

The new  inspection regime involves company staff, rather than AsureQuality personnel, checking carcases for non-food safety or quality aspects (see Food NZ, December/January 2011). The move came after trials of the new system at the Affco plant proved successful and overseas authorities approved the equivalence of the new inspection regime.. Four other plants  – Alliance Smithfield, Silver Fern Farms Pareora, Riverlands Blenheim and Affco Manawatu – are expected to introduce the new system later this year.

AsureQuality meat inspectors will still be onsite to undertake food safety post-mortem inspections on all meat products. Final oversight of the products remains the responsibility of the Ministry of Primary Industries Verification vets on the plant.

This article appeared in Food New Zealand magazine (October/November 2012).

Meat Workers Union must report correct accounts by 12 October

The Registrar of Incorporated Societies, Neville Harris, has given the NZ Meat Workers Union (NZWMU) a deadline of 12 October to provide consolidated accounts for the 2011 financial year, reports meat industry commentator Allan Barber.

The union has been given more time to provide similar details for the previous five years which cover the period since the national union took over the branches which were previously Incorporated Societies in their own right, he writes.

Legally NZMWU is obliged to post its annual accounts by the end of April for the preceding 12 month period and these accounts should consolidate the annual balance sheets and profit and loss statements for the Canterbury, Otago/Southland, Wanganui and Aotearoa branches. However since 2006, the parent union has merely included the net capitation or member subscriptions transferred by the branches to the national union in its annual accounts without reporting total subscriptions, expenses, assets and liabilities.

The only accounts I could trace before 2006 were those of the Aotearoa branch, separately registered as an incorporated society which reported annually to the Registrar of Incorporated Societies. In its last annual report before it disbanded and joined NZMWU as a branch of the main union, it reported total contributions of $1.26 million, expenses of $1.2 million and total assets of just under $1.2 million including term deposits of $961k.

In 2010, NZMWU reported equivalent figures of $712,000 capitation fees, $656,000 expenses and total assets of $1.026 million. Aotearoa branch alone contributed capitation fees of $271,400, compared with the 2005 figure of $1.26 million, although it is understood the membership pre-merger comprised more than just meat workers.

In November last year, I asked the national union and its auditor about this large discrepancy and met a brick wall. I then wrote letters to the Registrar of Incorporated Societies and the Institute of Chartered Accountants asking why the NZMWU was allowed to misreport its total financial accounts.

The official legal position was obtained from the Ministry of Economic Development which administers the annual reporting by incorporated societies to the Registrar in accordance with the 1908 Incorporated Societies Act. The annual filing must be accompanied by a signed certificate which certifies the approval of the annual financial statement by members of the society at a general meeting. These statements do not have to be audited. However, the members must have the opportunity to view and question them and may also elect not to approve the statements, if they are deficient or fail to disclose relevant information.

Where a society has unregistered branches as part of its structure, each branch must supply full financial details for inclusion in the statement submitted to the Registrar. This procedure must follow the rules of the society at all times. But it was in following this procedure where there were serious gaps in NZMWU’s practice.

After following this matter up in the New Year with the Companies Office, I received an assurance that the Registrar would require the posting of correctly consolidated accounts. However, in contrast, the Institute was unimpressed by my persistence, told me the matter had been discussed by its Professional Conduct Committee which found nothing amiss with the auditing of the accounts and considered the matter closed.

So nearly a year after my first enquiry to the Registrar, providing the NZWMU complies with the request to provide correctly prepared accounts for the 2011 year by 12 October, it will be possible to see the actual state of the union’s finances including all branches. It will correct what appears to have been deliberate obfuscation of the NZMWU’s actual financial position.

Another area of doubt concerns the NZMWU’s justification for actually being a union at all, because this requires that it must be an incorporated society, which by definition must have a minimum of 15 members. It claims that it doesn’t have any members which all belong to the branches. However the branches are no longer registered as incorporated societies, hence the justification for not reporting to the Registrar.

When I started this investigation, Graham Cooke, now President of the NZMWU, accused me of talking a load of hogs..t and plotting the demise of unions in collaboration with my former colleagues at AFFCO more than fifteen years ago. To which I replied that I had nothing against a union’s right to represent its members, but I was also strongly of the opinion a union, like any other incorporated society which charges fees to its members in return for provision of services or facilities, has an obligation to comply with all its legal obligations.

It finally looks as though I will get my wish!

Meat inspection no longer exclusively provided by AsureQuality

Last Tuesday, AFFCO’s Imlay plant in Whanganui was the first to be allowed to introduce meat inspection by its own employees. Till then this function has been performed exclusively by government employed meat inspectors, originally employed by MAF, subsequently by the state-owned-enterprise AsureQuality, writes Allan Barber.

The proposal to allow meat companies to have a hand in meat inspection finally saw light of day about two years ago, although the companies have been dissatisfied with the government monopoly for many years. I can remember the issue raising its head in the early 1990s when the meat inspectors went on strike because of pay and conditions.

AFFCO, for whom I worked at the time, had its production disrupted by a group of employees on its plants, employed by a different employer on different terms from its own workforce and belonging to a different union, the Public Service Association (PSA). Not surprisingly, AFFCO was unhappy at this state of affairs.

But 20 years later, after negotiations and discussions with MAF, then the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and a trial at Imlay, overseas regulatory authorities (notably USDA and EU) have approved the equivalence of the proposed inspection procedure.

There will still be at least two AsureQuality food safety assessors monitoring each shift and final oversight of the product remains the responsibility of the MPI Verification vets on the plant. The most significant difference will be in the total number of employees, because on all plants there have been up to 12 meat inspectors and supervisors across a two shift operation.

In future, meat workers on the chain will be responsible for their own inspection, supervised by official inspectors who must be trained to the same level and subject to the same performance checks as AsureQuality’s inspectors. There will be considerable savings from the new system which the PSA argues will place an undue emphasis on production at the expense of food safety.

MPI released the proposed Post Mortem Inspection regulations for cattle, sheep and goats and asked for submissions by 13 July this year. The response, from what I assume was the PSA, raised several concerns about the risks to New Zealand’s reputation for safe food which the current inspection model had guaranteed for more than three decades. MPI’s replies to the objections indicated its satisfaction with the proposed process which overseas authorities had already approved.

In its submission, the PSA also stated its willingness to discuss opportunities for more flexibility and productivity gains. This all sounds constructive, until one realises the meat companies have been trying for at least 20 years to do just that without success.

A further four meat plants – Alliance Smithfield, Silver Fern Farms Pareora, Riverlands Blenheim and AFFCO Manawatu – will adopt the new company meat inspection procedure by the end of January 2013. At this point, a review will be conducted before approval for a rollout across the industry over the next two seasons.

Kelvan Smith, AsureQuality’s group manager operations, says that the SOE accepts what is happening is inevitable, but wants to make sure it has a clear understanding of the industry’s timetable for the change. His main concern is to manage the impact on employees of what is likely to be a 50 percent reduction in staff numbers by the end of the process.

It is possible that not all meat processors will want to change from the present system, especially if they have a good working relationship with the meat inspectors working at their plants. However, cost pressures make this unlikely, if the new arrangements work well. The PSA and its affected members will be keeping their fingers crossed.

 

Meat season hits the wall, says Barber

Cattle supply has virtually dried up earlier than expected this season, Allan Barber has found. Writing in his most recent blog, he says settlement of the industrial dispute at AFFCO barely came in time to beat the passing of the season’s processing peak. Contrary to expectations that the supply of cattle, particularly cull dairy cows, would last until the end of June at least, the flow has virtually dried up.

Barber has been talking to B+LNZ Ltd’s Economic Service executive director Rob Davision. Read more …