Polish meat filler at centre of burger scandal

Burgers feeling the heat. Photo iStockResults back from the meat at the centre of the European horsemeat scandal revealed earlier this week that a Polish supplier of filler product for the burgers is the source of the equine DNA.

Tests by the Irish Food Safety Authority (FSAI) showed positive for equine DNA against meat filler – supposedly beef – imported from Poland for use in the production of burgers at the ABP-owned Silvercrest food processing plant in Ireland.

The Irish minister for agriculture, food and the marine Simon Coveney TD said the investigation had established a direct correlation between burgers in which a high level of equine DNA was detected and this raw material product. He was confident that the raw material in question was the source of equine DNA introduced into burgers manufactured at Silvercrest.

Ireland and the UK have conducted an exhaustive investigation into the source of the DNA – vital to reassure consumers and trade about the safety of the food chain.

In Ireland, over 140 samples of primary products and ingredients were tested for equine DNA at the Silvercrest plant, with three burgers and one imported ingredient testing positive for significant levels of equine DNA. The current findings of the official investigation do not show any evidence that Silvercrest deliberately used horsemeat in their production process, said the Minister.

ABP’s Yorkshire-based plant Dalepak was cleared by the British Food Standards Agency (the FSA), after samples comprising all the meat being used in the production of the suspect lines showed there was no horse or pork DNA present in any of them.  Investigation continues, however, into the origin of the DNA in some Dalepak products manufactured in 2012. The FSA has been answering questions at the British Parliament’s environment select committee this week.

ABP Group management has assured the Irish Minister that it will fully comply with conditions the Minister will apply to continued production standards at Silvercrest.

Silvercrest has commenced a deep cleansing of the plant, under new management, and will be submitted to a six-moth period of scrutiny by FSAI inspectors, after which it will be reviewed, advised Coveney.

“As part of this supervision, the Department will carry out weekly sampling of production in order to provide the necessary reassurance to its customers on the integrity of the production chain. A key component of this is the company’s commitment to source all its raw material from Ireland and the UK.”

The Polish authorities have been advised and the matter is now with them, said Coveney.

It is thought  that the situation has been in place for a year, as that’s the length of time the Polish supplier has been providing the filler products.

Changes at ABP

Apologising for the impact the issue had caused, Paul Finnerty, group chief executive for Silvercrest’s owner ABP Food Group said he was relieved the that the source of the problem had been identified.

“As previously stated, the company has never knowingly bought or processed horse meat and all of our purchases are from approved and licensed EU plants.”

In addition to the deep cleansing and new Silvercrest management team, ABP had undergone a Group reorganisation with responsibility for Silvercrest transferring to ABP Ireland. Its sister business in the UK, Dalepak Foods, will come under the immediate control of ABP UK. The Group is independently audting all its third party suppliers.

He noted that the source of the contaminated meat from Poland is not related to ABP’s plant in Poznan. As with all other parts of the Group, this plant does not process any horsemeat, said Finnerty.

Rippes spreading wider

Meanwhile, the ripples are spreading wider. News reports this week showed that ASDA and the 2,800 store Co-op had joined Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, Iceland and BurgerKing in ditching Silvercrest as a supplier. In addition, Spanish burgers have been said to also contain horse DNA after testing by a consumer group there. The group, Organizazión de Consumidores y Usuarios (OCU), has approached the Spanish food safety body to ask it to investigate.

Breach of trust too great

As promised, Tesco Group technical director Tim Smith has been telling his customers what had happened. He said the evidence tells him that Silvercrest, its frozen burger supplier, used meat in their products that did not come from the list of Tesco approved suppliers they were given. “Nor was the meat from the UK or Ireland, despite our instruction that only beef from the UK and Ireland should be used in our frozen beef burgers. Consequently, we have decided not to take products from that supplier in future. We took that decision with regret but the breach of trust is simply too great.”

Adding that Tesco will not take anything for granted in future after the incident, he said: “It has shown that in spite of our stringent tests, checks and controls there remained a small possibility that something could go wrong and it did. We want to stop it ever happening again, so we are taking action to reduce that possibility still further.”

The retailer is introducing a comprehensive system of DNA testing across its meat products, which will set a new standard according to Smith. “It will be a significant investment for Tesco, borne by Tesco,” he said.

“We want to leave customers in no doubt that we will do whatever it takes to ensure the quality of their food and that the food they buy is exactly what the label says it is.”

 

Burger hell

Burgers feeling the heat. Photo iStockThe discovery of horse and pig DNA in frozen beefburgers manufactured primarily in Ireland this week has sent the UK and Ireland into a spin as experts try to track its source. While checks are in place here in New Zealand that should prevent a similar thing happening, it is a salutary lesson for the meat industry about what could happen if consumer trust is broken.

What happened in Europe, is that frozen burgers, supposedly made from beef by major EU meat processor ABP Food Group, were routinely DNA-tested by Food Safety Authority Ireland (FSAI) and found to contain meat/protein from other sources including horse and traces from pigs too. The affected burgers, produced in the company’s subsidiaries Liffey Meats and Silvercrest Foods in Ireland and Dalepak Hambleton in the UK are sold in Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and Iceland stores in the UK and in Dunnes stores in Ireland.

Though the FSAI stated in its announcement on Tuesday (15 January) that there was no food safety risk from the products, all retailers have all reacted quickly to remove the items from sale. Tesco, which has also removed all other products from the suppliers from its stores and online, has apologised to its consumers and is promising them that it will find out what has happened and when it does so, it will tell them.

Other supermarkets have also withdrawn similar meat products while answering the British Food Standards Agency’s urgent questions to all British retailers about the exact contents of those items. To date, a total of over 10 million burgers are estimated to have been withdrawn from sale.

The issue is accumulating column inches in the UK and comment from Jewish and Muslim religious groups, animal welfare groups and unions demanding more transparency and more regulation for the meat industry.

ABP is taking the matter “extremely seriously” and says it has “never knowingly bought, handled or supplied equine meat products.

“We are shocked by the results of these tests and are currently at a loss to explain why one test showed 29 percent equine DNA,” the company says, adding that it was checking thoroughly with the two concerned suppliers and “is considering its options”. ABP is conducting its own DNA analysis of the products and will be implementing a new testing regime for meat products which will include routine DNA analysis.

The company assures that its group companies only buy meat from licensed and approved EU suppliers. “These results relate only to where beef based products have been sourced by those suppliers from the Continent. Only a small percentage of meat is currently procured from outside the UK and Ireland. Fresh meat products are unaffected.”

The latest comment in The Guardian suggests that the horse DNA might have come from additives extracted from protein sources, rather than fresh horse meat directly.

NZ: legal requirements not to mislead

Here in New Zealand, there are legal requirements not to mislead the customer, says the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), which will be keeping a close eye on proceedings in the UK.

New Zealand processors are subject to performance-based verification by MPI and meat products are not permitted for export until they first comply with requirements for sale domestically. In addition, MPI provides export certificates that provide MPI-verified assurances on the species of animal  from which the exported products were derived.

Under its mandatory Species Verification Programme – which checks the effectiveness of the regulatory requirements in place to ensure truth in labelling with respect to species of origin – MPI samplers collect 300 samples of meat from randomly allocated cold stores all around the country. Each sample is tested and the test includes checks for contamination by other possible species, using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which identifies proteins unique to a species. For example, a sheepmeat sample will be tested for the presence of cattle, deer, goat, horse or pig meat. These tests are conducted by an MPI contracted laboratory to do independent testing using an International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) method. The contracted laboratory operates under comprehensive quality systems that, as a minimum, comprise compliance with the ISO 17025 ‘Standard for technical competence of testing laboratories’.

In addition, the Australian/New Zealand Food Standards Code maintains standards for meat and meat products, specifying the proportions of fat free meat flesh and fat (sausages, for example, must contain no less that 500g/kg of fat free meat flesh and the proportion of fat in the sausage must be no more than 500g/kg of the fat free meat flesh content). There are also separate checks for contaminants and residues.

Together, these controls minimise the possibility of a meat not being mentioned in packaging being in the New Zealand product, says MPI, adding that there are no known incidents where a meat product in New Zealand was discovered not to be what it said it was.

 

 

 

 

Debt is good under some circumstances, says Barber

Allan BarberAfter Allan Barber’s column last week about meat industry debt levels, Keith Cooper, chief executive of Silver Fern Farms, took him to task for incorrectly reporting the situation with Silver Fern Farms’ debt facility, he writes in his latest guest blog.

I stated that these expired in September 2012 and therefore the company was operating on a temporary extension. The correct position was that the debt facility was originally negotiated for two years from September 2010 and consequently due to expire in September 2012. This remained the position at balance date in September 2011. However in the 2012 annual report, the facility was stated as expiring on 31 December 2012.

Clearly, the company had arranged a three month extension at some point before the original two year facility expired and this was not a temporary facility, as I implied. Nevertheless, it was no more than a three month extension, while the next longer term arrangement was being negotiated.

I apologise for any incorrect interpretation, but still maintain the company’s current debt level at balance date was higher than could be considered comfortable.

However, in an interview with Jamie Mackay on the Farming Show last week, when asked to comment on the industry’s debt level, Cooper gave his opinion that the debt was a good thing. Because it was tied up in inventories, it would ensure the industry acted responsibly. This is almost exactly what I wrote last week, although I saw the discipline on the companies as a necessity, not a virtue.

In Cooper’s radio interview, he stated after record prices last year, meat companies are reining things in.

“It’s a damn good thing we do have stock in store and we do have high debt because that means meat companies are acting responsibly, and are feeding the product to market to create stability of price. I’m quite happy that us and other companies have debt because that means they’ve got stock in store and that means we’re managing markets well.”

I must give Keith credit for being unreservedly a ‘glass half full’ kind of guy which you have to be to survive in what I believe is New Zealand’s toughest industry. He promises farmers that things will improve.

“We are living in volatile times. There will be volatility, but through the volatility we will see a steady increase in the price we will receive from offshore,” and he expects meat companies will pay farmers around 90 dollars per lamb this year.

I’m not sure the glass is quite as half full as Keith Cooper suggests, especially in the sheep meat market. Although lamb leg prices in the UK are holding fairly well, especially for chilled product, prices for middle cuts, like racks, loins and tenderloins, in North America and Europe are under pressure.

The price of loins and tenderloins have dropped by as much as 30 percent in the last couple of months, while there are fears of another collapse in lamb rack prices because of competition from low priced Australian product. As a result, importers are not placing orders for New Zealand lamb, because they remember the last time prices collapsed.

The Middle East has gone quiet on lamb shoulders because of cheaper Australian product, although China is still firm. Here, it appears New Zealand exporters benefit from less Australian competition with fewer China licensed plants in Australia.

All this explains why the New Zealand consumer is able to buy plenty of well priced lamb available on the domestic market. But this won’t provide more than a minimal contribution to managing the existing inventory levels and it certainly won’t cope with next year’s peak production. The industry will be keeping its fingers and toes crossed for an early economic uplift in our main markets, UK, Europe and North America, because otherwise the glass won’t have much in it at all.

Allan Barber is an agribusiness commentator, with particular interest in the meat industry. He has his own blog Barber’s Meaty Issues. This item has also appeared at www.interest.co.nz.

Pet food and jerky emerging as export growth opportunities

Pet food and prepared/processed beef products like beef jerky, or biltong, are two emerging growth opportunities for the New Zealand meat industry that have been identified in a newly released Coriolis report An Investor’s Guide to Emerging Growth Opportunities in New Zealand Food and Beverage Exports.

Strategic management consultants Coriolis carried out the report on behalf of the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to identify emerging high potential food and beverage export categories.

The report filtered out various export categories over $100 million each, such as boneless frozen and chilled lamb, bone-in sheepmeat, boneless and bone-in frozen and chilled beef, meat and edible offal (including venison), fats of beef, sheep or goats, as they “represent New Zealand’s core food and beverage exports” and also categories under $2 million. This left a core 129 categories for analysis.

Pet food and jerky were two of the initial 25 categories short-listed for their emerging export growth potential. Two more meat industry related categories – protein concentrates and textured protein substances and sausages – just missed the initial cut, with frozen chicken cuts also being dropped out of the final 20 as it had low potential export growth.

Pet food has a large global market, strongly growing demand and opportunities for growth in Asia, especially China, Australia and other rich countries, the analysis shows alongside information showing the category is capital intensive, requires some skills and has moderate trade access. Pet food has already attracted investment from US-owned Watties and Mars NZ and Swiss-owned Nestle NZ. Currently, exports are worth US$169 million, out of a global market worth US$13.8 billion, but the “possible size of the prize” by 2025 could be in excess of US$500 million, says Coriolis.

Beef jerky has received inward investment from US company Jack Link’s, which has grown the category markedly in recent years. New Zealand’s exports of processed/preserved beef are currently worth US$83 million, out of a global market worth US$7.4 billion, but he potential prize lies between $100-200 million for the category to 2025, says Coriolis. Opportunities lie in Asia, but making jerky is a capital intensive process that requires skills.. The UK is seen to have potential for the product

Report: a “vital resource”

New Zealand Food and Grocery Council chief executive Katherine Rich says the report is a vital resource for anyone in the food industry or someone looking to invest in it. This is the first time this information has been collected in such as easy-to-reference format.

“The food industry is the backbone of the economy and is always looking for investment to grow export opportunities. It is important that this additional investment is attracted so new Zealand can take advantage of the significant growth opportunities presenting themselves, particularly in Asia as the middle class there grows,” she says.

“It is perhaps not surprising that the sectors identified by the report as showing the greatest potential to grab these opportunities are ones where New Zealand could have a competitive advantage: salmon, honey, spirits, biscuits, pet food, cherries and infant formula,” says Rich, adding that there are other areas too, including beef jerky.

“As the report identifies, our exports of these top categories in 2010 were greater than the wine industry ($1.03 billion as against $951 million) and most of them are growing faster than all other food and beverage exports. Some 17 of them have already attracted foreign and/or private equity investment, indicating that the market itself has identified they present strong opportunities for growth.”

The categories of processed goods are already having an impact. “But what is most exciting is that Coriolis predicts that if they all acheived their potential we would be looking at exports worth between $4.3 billion and $6.1 billion – approximately $4.9 billion additional.”

To achieve the Government’s goal of increasing exports by 40 percent by 2025, each of these categories needs to continue to grow, says Rich. “This MBIE report will play a critical role in informing this plan.”

An Investor’s Guide to Emerging Growth Opportunities in New Zealand Food and Beverage Exports can be read online at the www.foodandbeverage.govt.nz website, where you can also download a pdf copy.

 

Vion leaving British meat industry

Aside

The Dutch-owned meat industry processor Vion NV has announced it is to leave the British meat industry, according to an item in the British Farmers Weekly magazine. The firm is the top EU producing company by meat volume according to Richard Brown of GIRA’s presentation to the Red Meat Sector Conference earlier this year. Producing 2.5 million tonnes (carcase weight equivalent) in 2010/2011, Vion deals principally in pork, but also beef, poultry and a small amount of sheepmeat. It entered the UK market in the late 1990s. According to the article, the UK operations for sale are pork, red meat and poultry units. Read more …

Success depends on innovation

Success depends on innovation, says the head of one of the world’s leading retailers – and a major customer for New Zealand lamb.

Speaking at the FT Innovate 2012 conference in London in early November, Tesco Plc’s group chief executive Philip Clarke said: “Be it nations or companies, if you don’t innovate; if you cling to the old way of doing things in the forlorn hope that the pace of change will slow; if you dare not take risks for fear of failure – if you do these things, then decline is inevitable.”

Change and innovation are part of every successful businesses’ DNA, he said and related the story of Tesco’s founder Jack Cohen “an innovator to his fingertips.”

It was Cohen who helped bring the concept of a self-service supermarket to Britain after World War II “an innovation that changed the entire retail industry.”

His innovative streak was borne out of an attitude of mind. “He’d travel, he’d constantly ask questions, spark ideas, try things. Lesson one from Jack then: to innovate we must create the right mindset.”

Since then Tesco has been leading innovation in retail “everything from new formats like Express to centralised distribution, which have revolutionised the supply chain here in the UK,” said Clarke.

The digital revolution is heralding a new era of retailing. While the customer always was king, thanks to digital technology, today’s customers are more powerful than ever. “Not just with more information and choice of goods and services to buy, but a choice of ways to shop at whatever time they like,” he said, adding that social media creates fashions in seconds, making or destroying brands within a day.

In the wake of the change has come data. “The vast, almost infinite quantities of data now available means no retailer has any excuse not to abide by the first law of business: know your customer.”

The insights gleaned by Tesco by its Clubcard, launched in the 1990s, turbo-charged Tesco’s growth. Data is now helping Tesco to drive innovation: “Which is why we own Dunnhumby, our marketing services business.”

While data is important, experimentation is vital. “Try, try and try again. And in the face of failure look for what is good about the experiment. Encourage your people to try again, to build on the success, not blame them for the failure.”

People said, when Tesco.com was launched in 2000, it would not work. “Today it is the world’s largest and most profitable online grocery retailer and we are rolling out the service across all our markets. Already more than five years old in Korea and Ireland; we have launched it in Slovakia, Czech, Poland. Thailand follows very soon.”

That roll out has been made possible thanks to an innovative IT platform that has been developed by Tesco’s Hindustan Service Centre, the company’s global services arm based in Bangalore, said Clarke.

“Employing over 3,000 technologists, this is where we develop new web services and systems so they are on a common operating platform, allowing is to set them up easily in markets around the world.”

Clarke described Tesco as a ‘blueprint led organisation’. “Once innovations are proved successful, a blueprint is developed and managers trained to speed adoption around the world.”

In each of their markets, Tesco.com’s offer has to be tailored to meet the local culture and tastes. New innovations to aid speeding delivery to the customer include Mapster, an application which tracks Tesco vans in real time and is being piloted in some stores around London. Tesco has also created a virtual store in Seoul, Korea, where commuters can use their smartphones on the platforms of the city’s underground to scan the barcodes of the products they want – and then their shopping gets delivered to the address of their choice later on the same day.

“Our Korean colleagues lead on digital innovation for the Group – not because we asked them but because we fostered a culture of innovation; we encouraged innovation and recognised colleagues for trying.”

Clarke liked to think that Jack Cohen would be proud of what Tesco did with Facebook, asking customers what ice-cream flavours they wanted – the 21st century equivalent of his 1930s store tours in Hackney. “Asking customers what they want isn’t new, but doing it the digital way is.”

Looking to the future, Clarke said for retailers it’s no longer going to be sufficient to innovate simply to meet an existing customer trend. “We need to innovate to anticipate what customers want. Successful retailers will not be those who meekly follow the customer like some obedient puppy. They will be one step ahead, offering people new ways to make their lives that bit better.”

Those innovations have to fit a powerful trend created by the power of digital technology,. “People want and increasingly expect personal service, a personalised choice, a sense that a brand – be it a retailer or media organisation – has tailored what they offer to fit their own unique needs and wishes.”

The drive to personalisation will be propelled even further by the internet of things. “Everything from the light bulb in your house to the car you drive will be connected to the internet… Mass personalisation, plus the internet, will determine everything, from pricing and promotions to the internet.”

Innovations depend on much more than just clever people who are experts at technology; and they rely on much more than just using customer insight in an intelligent way, Clarke said.

“From the perspective of any CEO, a company that truly excels at innovation is a company whose culture rewards innovation. It is a culture where people understand that, to change, to create something new, means taking risks. A culture where people know that innovations can certainly fail, that mistakes happen, but you learn from them; where aiming high, having a big, bold idea is not frowned upon, but encouraged. A culture in which the leaders think the biggest mistake is not trying, not experimenting, not taking a risk.”

 

Alliance group secures exclusive M&S deal

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.

 

‘Meating’ the plastic challenge

A series of challenges has been thrown out to the plastics industry to develop packaging that will help the meat industry maintain high food safety standards, increase shelf-life and develop new products.

The meat industry is one of this country’s biggest users of plastic, particularly in the form of packaging that keeps products safe, fresh and looking great right to through to the customer.

Speaking to the Plastics New Zealand conference in Queenstown in May, Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie outlined where he thought future opportunities lay for the material.

He told delegates that the meat industry has been very responsive to market demands and there has been a very significant change in the business model over the last 25 to 30 years. Trade has moved from sending frozen carcases – which, early on, were simply stockingetted and later shrink-wrapped for shipping – to the UK, to now sending chilled and frozen cuts and ready-prepared products to more than 115 markets around the world, with a growing focus on the Asian region, he explained.

“Now, we are in the business of directly servicing supermarkets with quality, consumer-ready cuts of meat, produced and packaged at source in New Zealand.

The industry is now in the ‘disassembly’ process, exporting and marketing the ‘bits’ around the world so as to maximise value, he said, adding that “a steadily increasing proportion of trade is high value chilled product.”

Ritchie said that plastics are widely used in the production process, covering products such as clips, liners, covers, containers, crates and pallets, “ensuring that processes are as clean as possible while meeting the needs of industrial production for items that are lightweight and resilient.”

There is a need to ensure their biodegradability and detectability. “But the greatest opportunities for the future of plastics in the meat industry are probably in packaging,” he said.

Areas of opportunity lie in safety, shelf-life, environmental sustainability and, finally, product quality and presentation. Reducing costs and lifting efficiencies are also part of the equation.

A growing volume of New Zealand meat is chilled and it is vacuum-packaged and sometimes CO2-gas flushed.  “The use of barrier bags and gas flushing were important steps in the evolution of our business.”

New packaging that contains anti-bacterial agents, such as ‘biophages’, and ‘smart packaging’ which can identify changes in the product and alert consumers if there is a problem, are two new areas where manufacturers can assist the meat industry to maintain high food safety standards, according to Ritchie.

Shelf-life is another area which has become even more important especially for the perishable chilled meat trade, as the global shipping industry moves towards greater use of ‘slow-steaming’, which increases transit times and reduces the remaining shelf life of products once they get to market. He noted that packaging companies already working on solutions with shelf-life enhancing properties.

In addition, consumers are increasingly demanding environmental sustainability, which means reduced and/or recyclable packaging. Food waste, identified as a major problem especially by the European Union, is also an issue.

“But a significant amount also occurs after purchase and here packaging can be part of the problem,” Ritchie says. Packaging sizes for single or fewer portions, for example, or re-sealable and compartmentalised packages can help limit unnecessary waste.

“And then there are bio-plastics, such as those being made from meat by-products.”

It is not just being satisfied ourselves that all is sustainable and safe, said Ritchie. “We need to be able to demonstrate it to the consumer and retailer, who is often proxy for the consumer in this business.

“Plastics can play an increasing role in helping with food safety, extending product shelf-life, improving attractiveness and ease-of-use by consumers. At the same time, our industry increasingly needs products that are environmentally sustainable, with recyclable or biodegradable attributes,” he concluded.

“And of course, anything your industry can do to help us take cost out of the system and improve operational efficiency will be welcomed.”

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

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.”

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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).