Assessment of Downstream Supply Chain for Chilled Meat in China

Organisation: Meat Industry Association (MIA)
Grant Number: A17021
Grant Amount: $50,000
Grant Type: Market Insight Grants

China’s growing demand for safe, quality food has positioned it as New Zealand’s largest market for sheepmeat and second largest market for beef with a total of NZ$2.1 billion for the year ending Dec 2017. It is however a challenging market with a number of issues that prevent the industry from fully capitalising on the market potential. In addition, unlike traditional markets like UK and Europe, chilled meat is a relatively new product category and there is still much to be learned about the market’s ability to handle this type of time and temperature sensitive product.

The project focused on gaining a deeper understanding of China’s port clearance and in-market supply, distribution and cold chain capability for chilled meat. It helped to assess current supply chains and to identify risks that need to be managed to either minimise food safety and quality risks or capture new business opportunities.

The project tracked and mapped 33 chilled meat shipments from New Zealand through to the final point of sale in China. This helped to validate the port clearance procedures and timeframes and the cold chain integrity along the distribution chain. It also identified a few areas of risk that need some attention. In addition, the project provided some insights into consumer perceptions of New Zealand chilled meat and its positioning against major competitors.

“Without AGMARDTs assistance, it would have been challenging to gather this information in a consistent manner so that the key findings can have relevance and applicability to the entire meat industry today and into the future.” Sirma Karapeeva, Trade & Economic Manager, Meat Industry Association

We are grateful for the assistance the AGMARDT Grant provided. It has allowed Freshco to direct sales and manage our own destinies in each market enabling us to extract more value from the supply chain to the consumer.

John Mangan / Director, Freshco

AGMARDT supports and enables. Projects and people benefit from funding; New Zealand benefits from development of ideas, technologies, approaches and leadership. In particular, the trust facilitates information dissemination: AGMARDT is the catalyst for ripples that spread through the primary sector.

Dr Jacqueline Rowarth /

AGMARDT's support of Texus in the above process tangibly accelerated the development of the above essential activities and testing of market entry strategy, while also exposing Texus management to cutting-edge thought leadership around market shaping and the levers that can be applied to scope and facilitate such shaping.

Nick Davenport / CEO, Texus Fibre Industry Leader Scholarship Winner

The support from AGMARDT has enabled us to gain greater insights into farmer behaviour across all sectors and which will assist accelerated uptake of the livestock exchange and enhance market opportunities for all farmers.

Jason Roebuck / Managing Director, Stock-X Limited