OUR STORIES
Silver Fern Farms China Immersion Study Trip
| Organisation: | Federated Farmers |
| Grant Type: | Leadership & Governance Grant |
| Grant Number: | L16009 |
| Grant Amount: | $4,000 |
The New Zealand Meat industry is one of the country's major export earners, worth approximately $6b per annum. The objective of the study tour was to gain a greater appreciation of the Chinese food market, including its dynamics, supply chains and competitive landscape by visits to farms, food processors, retailers and consumers, including meeting some in their homes.
The study group included a small group of Silver Fern Farms shareholders and invited guests. Representing Federated Farmers on the trip was Rick Powdell who is a Director of Federated Farmers and the organisation’s Meat and Fibre Chair.
Spending time with the Shanghai Maling personal, visiting one of their further processing facilities and visiting retail outlets highlighted the understanding of the value chain required. As highlighted by Shanghai Maling leadership, the successful importation of large quantities of chilled product is still some way off due to inefficiencies of the chilled value chain and the reputational brand risk should there be a failure in the chain.
E-commerce is an area of growth in China, including meat, with affluent customers owning refrigerated letter boxes. Like the chilled trade, e-commerce of meat has risk in the delivery chain if fast and efficient transport options are not guaranteed and acceptable cold storage is not assured at receiving point.
Visiting the vast grasslands of Inner Mongolian highlighted how large the sheep industry in China is and even though much of the industry still operates in a peasant manner, the share scale means their potential to upscale is immense.
Like any foreign culture, how they consume particular products is unique, but the westernisation of society is changing the appetite of many consumers seeing more of our cuts becoming common in this market.