Tag Archives: chilled lamb

New venison plant for Alliance Smithfield

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Alliance Group’s $8.6 million new venison plant at its Smithfield site, near Timaru, is now operating at full capacity.

New Zealand’s leading meat processor and exporter is processing up to 420 carcases a day at the plant, which serves the company’s upper South Island suppliers.

Until now, Smithfield has only processed sheep and lamb, so the venison plant marks a major milestone for Alliance. More than 50 workers are based at the venison plant, which operates most of the year.

Murray Behrent, general manager of livestock says: “Alliance Group has invested in Smithfield as part of its dedication to delivering exceptional product quality and food safety standards. It is also a reflection of our confidence in the region and we have received great support from our suppliers, who are producing the quality livestock that we require.”

“Smithfield is yet another example of Alliance Group’s ongoing investment to ensure we meet the needs of our suppliers,” he adds.

The outlook for venison remains positive and the investment at Smithfield showed the company was focusing on processing a variety of products for global markets, says Behrent.

ViaScan to be installed at Smithfield in the next year

The new venison plant was built to accommodate Alliance’s innovative ViaScan meat scanning technology, which will be installed within the next 12 months at Smithfield, the company says.

ViaScan visually analyses carcases measuring the lean meat, fat and bone, to capture yield performance levels. It has been available since 2003 for analysing sheepmeat, and is already in use at eight Alliance Group plants. The company announced it was first to be extended to its venison suppliers at the Alliance Makarewa in Southland in July this year.

Along with providing suppliers with the opportunity of improving returns, ViaScan also aligns farmers with current market information and helps them with decision-making and the selection of good genetics.

“Exceptional product quality and food safety standards are vital for Alliance Group’s export market,” said Behrent when announcing the move. “We’re targeting high-end consumers with discerning palates who rate meat quality highly when making purchasing decisions and ViaScan helps our suppliers produce the quality livestock that is required.”

ViaScan will also mean suppliers can measure the performance of each individual carcase, particularly when the National Identification and Tracing Scheme (NAIT) is introduced in February 2013 for deer, says Behrent.

Smithfield is one of the three Alliance premises selected by Marks & Spencer to provide chilled New Zealand lamb for its UK retail stores. It is also one of the five first plants to introduce the new Ovine Post-Mortem Inspection system of sheepmeat carcase checks this year.

In 2011, Alliance Group completed a $15 million project to upgrade its Mataura beef plant in Southland.

Alliance group secures exclusive M&S deal

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Meat processor and exporter Alliance Group has confirmed it has secured an  exclusive deal to supply chilled New Zealand lamb to iconic UK retailer Marks & Spencer.

The South Island co-operative will be the sole supplier of chilled New Zealand lamb to Marks & Spencer from Christmas 2012, sourcing lambs from approved farms across the South Island for processing at the company’s Lorneville (Invercargill), Pukeuri (Oamaru) and Smithfield (Timaru) plants.

This supply arrangement is the first time Marks & Spencer has agreed to an exclusive deal for chilled lamb from a single New Zealand supplier.

Marks & Spencer supplies a wide range of lamb products to its UK customers, with its fresh lamb cabinet featuring a full selection of bone-in and boneless cuts. The retailer’s added-value lamb lines also include ‘ready to roast’ leg joints as well as other ‘oven-ready’ cuts sold under the premium in-house ‘Cook!’ label.

Alliance Group marketing manager Murray Brown says, “This exclusive contract marks a major milestone in Alliance Group’s 20 year relationship with Marks & Spencer. As they have a loyal customer base for lamb, coupled with the fact that our chilled lamb programme runs counter-cyclical to the UK domestic supply season, we’re very excited about the growth opportunities it offers for everyone involved. This deal is good news for our farmer suppliers.”

Brown added: “As a result of the strengthened relationship, Alliance Group is also now actively exploring a number of other initiatives in our agricultural, technical and commercial divisions with Marks & Spencer to maximise the benefits of this partnership.”

Steve McLean, head of agriculture and fisheries sourcing at Marks & Spencer, says: “We are looking forward to growing our partnership with the Alliance Group and strengthening our links with their producers. We are impressed with Alliance Group’s commitment to high quality lamb production, and I am confident they will meet the taste and tenderness requirements of our discerning customers.”

All Alliance Group products supplied to Marks & Spencer will be sourced from registered M&S Select farms so that the co-operative can trace lambs back to their farm of origin.

The M&S Select Farm scheme sees supplying farmers registered on M&S TRAK, a traceability management system launched by Marks & Spencer in 2009. The programme, which includes lamb suppliers from both New Zealand and the UK, features a database that monitors farm-management, animal origin and livestock records.

Meanwhile, in conjunction with AbacusBio (UK), Alliance Group is progressing with the introduction of its Hoofprint programme to a group of selected UK farmers supplying lambs to Marks & Spencer.

Hoofprint helps farmers monitor the carbon footprint associated with their farm, whilst also focusing on improving productivity. The web-based farmer-friendly programme analyses performance information based on the data collected from each farm in order to determine the size of its carbon footprint. The Hoofprint model will be released to all registered TRAK suppliers in New Zealand.

Marks & Spencer uses two UK based meat processors, Dawn Meats Ltd and Scotbeef Ltd, to cut and retail pack their New Zealand chilled lamb in the marketplace. Both of these companies are already well known to Alliance Group, with personnel from each processor having visited Alliance on a number of occasions in recent years.

Marks & Spencer is one of the UK’S leading retailers with more than 21 million customers every week. The company employs over 78,000 people in the UK and abroad, and has over 700 UK stores, plus an expanding international business operating in 43 different territories around the world.

 

Positive signs in Europe

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There are positive signs in Europe for New Zealand lamb, beef and venison meats and co-products according to Silver Fern Farms which has finalised its plans for Christmas chilled lamb sales and completed its overall sales plan for 2012/2013 with positive outcomes, it says.

The company’s sales teams have been active in Europe over the past two weeks, culminating in the European food fair SIAL in Paris last weekend.

“Working with our Aalst office team in Belgium, we have met and concluded business with many European customers who appear to have regained confidence based on supply and stability of value, which is underpinning the overall market sentiment from European customers,” says chief executive Keith Cooper.

For general manager sales and marketing Glenn Tyrrell, this early confidence is a healthy sign. “It will likely lead to sustained demand and relising on food service delivery cards, something which has been lacking lately due to the price hike in 2011,” he says.

In the UK, Marks and Spencer (M&S) recently put up their annual six month supply of chilled NZ lamb for sole tender. “As we could not offer organic lamb to M&S, the Alliance Group picked up this tender. While unfortunate, given the effort from both Silver Fern Farms and suppliers who have supported M&S for the last five years, our priority is to maximise organic and overall chilled supply to Tesco which has fully supported development of our branded retail packs in their store,” says Tyrrell.

Silver Fern Farms continues to be optimistic on beef with a prediction for schedule prices to farmers of $3.60 a kg during the season heading to $4.20 per kg, according to Cooper. “Venison is forecast to track up from a low of $6.70-8.00 per kg next October and lamb is likely to bottom out at peak season post-Christmas at $4.80 per kg and will progressively build to $5.80 per kg this time next year,” he says.

“It is clear the European market cannot be taken for granted,” comments Cooper. “Market forces over 2011/2012 saw a downturn in sales and a major price correction, in market and at farm gate. Now this has passed, many customers are looking to relist products but they are also looking for marketing support and price stability. These opportunities fit particularly well with Silver Fern Farms’ strategy of creating value in the way of a truly integrated value chain – linking consumers to farmer suppliers.”