Steve Brown: Headwaters and Lumina CEO on their forecast returns increasing 60% on last year

A welcome boost to New Zealand's premium meat sector, with strong growth expected this season. 

Headwaters Farmers —who produce Lumina Lamb— are forecasting returns of $23.50 per lamb, up 60% on last year. 

It also reports successful expansion into the Middle East. 

Headwaters and Lumina Chief Executive Steve Brown told Mike Hosking these markets attract premium pricing. 

He says they also want to take on producers in the UK market and show them what quality lamb looks like. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More evidence that the old farming sector is doing the
heavy economic lifting Headwaters farmers there behind Lumina LAMB are
the forecast of returns of twenty three to fifty per LAMB,
which is up sixty percent. They got strong growth in
newmarkets places like Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Now Steve Brown's
the boss at Headwaters and Lumina, and as with us, Steve,
morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
You, good morning, Mike. Pleasy to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Now Beef gets the headlines. But of course, is there
a good LAMB story And is the Lamb's story good
because it's you guys, or is LAMB just generally a
good news story.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's a good question. I think LAMB is generally a
good news story. But we'd like to think that sort
of Headwaters and Lumina are leading the way as far
as global recognition. So the yeah, the outlook for LAMB
generally is strong, but certainly for Lumina it's locking really
positive just.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
For people who don't follow this who are Lumina, who
are Headwaters.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
So it's a great story that started about twenty years
ago with a group of fourteen farmers in Central Otago
in Southland who wanted to breed a different type of
sheep that had increased survivability, and over the years, what
they found breeding that sheep is it had higher levels
of Omega three and intramuscular fat, which made it a

(01:13):
great eating lamb as well. And what we've found and
developed as a feeding regime where the lambs are fed
on chickory for thirty five days and that helps the
eating quality and provides a more consistent and high quality
eating experience for consumers. And that's now one hundred farms

(01:35):
around New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Fantastic. So you're the quality story, aren't you. You're it
doesn't matter. There will always be people who will be
prepared to pay extra for something that's good.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
That's exactly it. So I think where these farmers wanted
it originally was they were tired of sort of seeing
the lambs leaves the farm and not knowing where they went,
and they wanted to be connected to the market. So
the strength of the brand and the lumin of brand
is really that strong connection to international markets and a

(02:05):
select group of distributors who target premium restaurants Mitchellin Star
restaurants and diners that want that exceptional lamb meeting experience.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I was going to ask about that, how much of
it ends up in a restaurant versus in a supermarket.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
It's virtually one hundred percent into food service and restaurants.
So we trial. I think a few of our distributors
and markets look to test the retail market, but really
it's the feedback from the chefs that drives enthusiasm from
the farmers or for the farmers, and that feedback has

(02:41):
been well recognized.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
What's your potential do you think?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yes, twenty years and we still call ourselves a startup.
We've gone from fifty thousand lambs in twenty twenty one
to a quarter of a million this year, and in
a declining flock in New Zealand, we'd like to think
that we've got the potential to grow to a million
lambs and help sort of introduce the will to this

(03:08):
fantastic protein that we produce.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
How big of the Sound East, well, how big will
they be?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
The feedback's being really positive, and we are only in
Saudi Arabia a wee bit and do buy at the moment,
but that whole Middle East is you know, there's a
lot of wealth and the big lamb eaters. So that's
a great opportunity. But even in the UK and Europe
there is opportunities for Lumina where they've got Welsh, Scottish,

(03:38):
Irish lamb and you know, we want to take them
head on and show them what quality lamb looks like.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Great story well and Steve appreciate it very much. Dee Brown,
who's the CEO of Headwaters and Luminas, So there it is.
I mean, you can't argue with sixty percent increase with
potential upside and people will buy quality when it's available
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