Consumers, Costs and Competitiveness – Industry Conference & AGM
From Chairman Chris Trengrove's speech:
The theme of our conference is Consumers. Costs, and Competitiveness. It recognises the three key elements that drive all of our businesses, and the relative profitability of them. The strong focus on consumers is appropriate as consumers themselves, those that deal directly with them and those that influence them are ultimately the determinants of our success. On the other side of the ledger is our cost structure which has changed dramatically during the last 12 months and is certainly constraining our profitability. Our biggest cost being feed, is therefore an area where we need to be informed and leave no stone unturned, and I’m certainly looking forward to that session later today. Lastly you only have to look at the 800,000 kgs per week of imported pork that flowed in to our country last year to recognise that we’re in a global industry and therefore understanding our competitiveness is a critical exercise for the industry.
Download Chairman Chris Trengrove's speech in full.
July 21/22 saw 80 people attend our industry conference / AGM in Christchurch. The first day was drew participants from right across the industry and the second day was dedicated to producers and remits. Four external speakers presented:
- Tim Donaldson Retail Brands Mgr for Foodstuffs South Island noted that the biggest question asked at the meat counter is “where is that pork from”, another positive was the pork was the fastest growing meat in the cabinet however was constrained from even more growth because pork was still not presented in an “added value form”. Tim Donaldson’s presentation is not available due to commercial sensitivity.
- Nick Harris, Managing Director of Heller Tasty spoke about the “prospects for processed”. He emphasised that the New Zealand industry needed to be realistic about what it could supply and where the opportunities for 100% NZ processed product given the pricing, specifications and availability of imported pork. Nick saw opportunity to develop added value products because of their ability to balance the carcase and this also provided the opportunity to grow bigger pigs. Nick Harris’s presentation is not available due to commercial sensitivity.
- Roger Campbell CEO of the Australian Pork CRC emphasised the challenge of producing more kgs of carcase weight per sow per year and the significant difference that made to overall profitability and given the grower herd used 80% of overall feed every option needed to be explored to take cost out of this area or grow pigs faster. Roger also looked at NZ’s competitiveness and acknowledged that we are currently at our most competitive internationally. Download Roger Campbell's presentation for more information.
- Lastly John Russell the manager for feed at Tegel presented on the volatility of the world feed market, he emphasised the need to look at every possible feed option and to fix in the feed cost as much as possible with contracts, then you “know where you are”. Download John Russell presentation for more information.
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