The Country 14/10/25: Duncan Humm talks to Hamish McKay

Canterbury deer farmer on an "absolute doozy" of a year for venison.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, I speak you bred is Venison going a bit
better at the moment. That's tracking a really well good sales.
So let's let's have a look at this. We're going
to head to Mount Summers, Canterbury, deer Farmer from Enzied Farming,
Duncan hunt Kodo Duncan.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
How are you good much? How are we?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah? I'm fighting for the old Venison world, you know,
going okay? Things have certainly picked up a bit.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
We certainly can't complain. This year has been an absolute
doozy for us productivity wise and stuff that they've done
real well. And yeah, prices and contracts and stuff that
we've signed up with, yeah pretty decent as well. So
we'll always be good to see a few more bucks.
But everything's taken on nicely so part from the bloody

(00:44):
wind at the moment. That's yeah, good times.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh yeah, that's that's the worst of all the evils,
isn't it? The wind? So who's picked up the slack?
Where's this gut? Where are the where are these sales
of the venison going to? And where are the are
the bright spots?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
So I think yeah, for our company we supply, which
is Mountain River, Yeah, they sort of diverse by and
sort of send it all over really, so big chunk
goes to America, but into the local market and Scandinavia,
China and then the traditional markets like Germany and places

(01:22):
like that as well. So sort of yeah, pretty good
spread out of customers, and so I think that's sort
of where that consistency and confidence in the pricing comes from.
But yes, certainly the demand into the state. Yeah, the
sort of naturally produced venison. Yeah, they seems can't get
nothing of it, so we could probably send more there.

(01:43):
But it's just a case of keeping a pretty balanced approach.
So I quite like how a company goes about it.
It's good.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, so is that going I can do basically being
purchased by supermarket shoppers through that brand in the US
or because I know China the hit came with their
sort of silver service white tablecloth sort of backing off that.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
It's a bit of a yeah, that sort of spreads
out so the Yeah, but it goes into into you know,
like the restaurant trade. But yeah, big chunks of it
goes into both online sales and companies whole foods under
the force of nature brands. So yeah, so yeah, a

(02:27):
lot of it's sold online. Some of the specific cuts,
more the more bespoken, high end cuts, they can only
sell online because they can't can't get enough of it.
And yeah, the rest of it sort of goes into
supermarkets like whole foods, where there's real good, strong demands
for lots of just good classic months and things like
the ancestral blends that have got organ meat and with

(02:51):
the months as well. So yeah, pretty good.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
They're good variety, good stuff, righty. Oh, Well, what's happening
in terms of the US an industry in regard to
the proposed gene tech bill. What's the stance there.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, I'm not really too sure where the likes of
our industry is on it exactly. I would have thought
they'd be a bit more prominent, but yeah, just for
most of us, we yeah, we've had to do it
for quite a few years where every loaded year we
send away, we're going to sign a declaration to say
that they've been said no GMO food or yeah later

(03:29):
on now ge food as well. So sort of like
a big part of that brand story and that whole yeah,
that whole New Zealand providence that yeah, we're all natural
and yeah, they are taking customers are more interested in
there and like biodiversity and you know, the whole bigger picture.

(03:51):
So yeah, that g E three is a huge part
of it. So yeah, the consumers people actually pick it
up put in they're trolley. Yeah, they just don't really
want a bar of anything that's modified. They want as
natural as possible and they sort of love how we
do things down here as.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Is okay, so you reckon that has a real cut
through with those in that export market.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
It's a real it's a complex picture, like it's not
like whatever one single attribute, but it's a huge part
of the whole story. So it's like any kind of
like an easy win, like you get in the door
with these customers and you start talking to them, or
when they come down to New Zealand, you're get them
out on the farm here and baah. You know, one
of the first things I'll sort of ask is, oh, yeah,

(04:38):
we've heard New Zealand's like GE three and you're like yep,
no ah, well that's buddy awesome. And it's just sort
of like a huge box ticked and then you can
move on to more detailed stuff. So it's just like
a big big toe on the door, and yeah, they
just really like that.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Just quickly duncan the methane reductions fourteen to twenty four percent?
He doesn't go far enough, or does it?

Speaker 2 (05:01):
You're happy with that? I can appreciate the political side
of it that they can't go further, but yeah, they
definitely need to go further, like the science supports that,
and what's going on here in New Zealand. Wen, I
guess we can. Well, the positive is we can already
achieve those reductions with the technology and the tools that

(05:23):
we've got in our hands today, So we don't need
gene modified stuff or any of these tools that are
going to require a fundamental shift of how we produce
food to achieve it. So I think it's a really
kind of a good news story. I guess it's a
good way to meet sort of meat in the middle.
But yeah, we can always be going further, and hopefully
that will happen in due course. Is more common sense prevails.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Very good. We need a bit of that old common
sense prevailing meetia in the middle. Not too bad idea
at the moment. That is, as farming catergory, dear farmer
at a mount summer's