Nathan Guy: Meat Industry Association Independent Chair on the Alliance Group potentially mothballing it's Timaru plant

It’s a sad day for Timaru, with hundreds of meatwork jobs potentially on the line. 

Alliance Group has called everyone at its Smithfield meatworks to an all-staff meeting at 11am. 

Locals fear the plant will be mothballed this season, with production being moved to Invercargill, and up to 1200 people left out of work. 

Nathan Guy from the Meat Industry Association told Mike Hosking any job losses will be most unfortunate. 

But he says meat companies are very agile and make changes as they see fit, and today is about making the right decision for the company's future. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A deal got done in record time, latest free trade
deal this is sort of with the UA signed off yesterday.
For the red meat industry, it's our twenty first largest market,
forty seven million dollars worth of meat, so it's not
really big. So what about the potential? The Meat Industry
Association Independent Chair Nathan Guy with us Nathan morning to you,
yea morning mate, This looks like a good quality deal.
I mean everyone wants to do business. Can we do

(00:21):
more business? And how much more with them?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh? For sure? The significant upside. First of all, I
just want to congratulate the Minister of Trade Bott McClay
for great work he's done in record time and of
course as official so he's opened the door, he's built
the connections, he already had them as a former trade minister.
This is a real pay of celebration for our red
meat sector up against a lot of headwinds and it's

(00:45):
a real spring on the step for our meat companies
and also for our farmers. So the upside is significant.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
So it's a twofold thing. One can we sell more
to the UAE and does the trade deal itself expand
out to the other emirates in the region. Generally in
their form all for.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Us, Yes, it will, and I know that the Minister
is working hard in the Golf States with those countries
as well. And of course when I was back in
the hot seat and Wellington, we were working hard there
and it's been stalled, but he certainly warmed that relationship
up again, which is fantastic. We know that UAE is
a very oil rich economy. Mic it's a massive financial center.

(01:22):
It's also a hub for global air and sea logistics,
so the connections to other countries is huge. This is
a fantastic agreement. We're very proud.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
How much growth do you see in red meat or
we just don't know at this point because forty seven
million dollars isn't a lot, No, it isn't.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
And if we just step back a bit and look
at what the savings are just on that with a
five percent removal on tariff for frozen beef and sheep meat,
that's about seven hundred and fifty thousand just at the
moment from a standing start. So what this will mean
is significant upside. I can't give you a number because
I'm not the meat company chief executive, but it is significant.

(02:04):
The feedback that I've had from the companies yesterday and overnight.
They're very excited by the agreement.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Fantastic and it's good to see generally in a world
that you would argue increasingly sadly is not particularly free trade,
there's still some business to be done by like minded
nations who are free trade.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yes, that's right. And the other significant thing about this agreement,
Mike is at seventy five percent of the local population
out there Muslim, and we do really well with our
all our requirements and certification, so we see this as
also a significant move. We know that allow markets return
to US about three billion dollars currently in a twelve

(02:46):
month period, so that's also a big moving part of
this agreement as well.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
The Smithfield thing today and tim Row, I don't know
how much you know about it, but it's somewhat ironic,
isn't it. As we look to grow red meat, there's
a facility there that clearly in some trouble. What's the
state of red meat in this country right here right now?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, companies have been through a lot of change and
will continue to go through change. Mic Whatever Alliance decide
to announce today is really their commercial decision and if
there are job losses, that's most unfortunate. But meat companies diversify,

(03:27):
they change, they review stop numbers, they look at their plants,
age and stage, how efficient they are, consent issues, you know,
the local supply. So all of these things impact. And
what I would like to tell you and listeners is
that meat companies are extremely agile and they make changes

(03:49):
as they see fit. And this really is just an
a billet or just a decision of getting on and
making I guess the right decision for this company in
the future. And we'll wait and see what happens today.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
We wish them well for the day, obviously, Nathan appreciate it.
Nathan Guy, Meat Industry Association, Independent Years. For more from
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