The Country 28/02/25: Anna Nelson talks to Jamie Mackay

Yesterday we tracked down the Chair of Silver Fern Farms (and King Country farmer and vet) in Vietnam where she is accompanying the PM and industry leaders on a trade delegation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's great to catch up with Anna Nelson again. Who's

(00:02):
Anna Nelson. Well, she's the chair of Silverfern Farms. She's
a King Country farmer. She's a Vet as well, and
she's in Vietnam at the moment with the Prime Minister
signing trade deals or something like that. Anna, from a
silver Fern farm's point of view, how big a deal
is Vietnam as a trading partner.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, get Jamie, great catch up. It's Vietnam is a
small market for self and farms, but one that we're
really interested in. There's potential here. There's a one hundred
million people or so, a rapidly growing middle class in
the restaurant trade, in retail. It's all changing up here

(00:43):
as people are getting more wealthy. They're really interested in
what the future of their diet looks like. They're very
interest in the education system. It's an incredibly mobile and
a very interesting country to be spending some time.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
I've never been there before. People say it's a fascinating country.
I would love to go there alone for the war history,
but I just imagine it as being a bit hot
and sweaty and muggie. What's it like because you're in
northern Vietnam at the moment in Hanoi, and you'll be
heading to ho Chi Min City later on, which is
what saigone, isn't it. So what's the weather like?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, it's I'd say right now, I'd love to be
able to send a little bit of this rain in
cooler weather in Hanoi that come to Aria, to the
King Country. It's it's quite pleasant up here in raining today.
We are flying south, like you say, this afternoon, and
it's going to be I think it's peaking at thirty
five degrees then fli one humidity in ho Chi Mien,

(01:40):
so pretty different when we get to get further south.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
So Christopher Luxen is being very ambitious, and to be
fair to him, he's a bit of an energizer bunny
on the world stage when it comes to these trade deals.
He's looking at two way trade of three billion dollars
between our countries by next year. Is that ambitious? Is
it realistic?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
It's ambitious, definitely. I think it is realistic. I think
that's that's right across the sectors and in this group
of businesses he's got up here with him. We've got education,
we've got quite a lot of heart. We've got some
guys from the tech industries with some really interesting opportunities,
so it's been great to spend some time with all

(02:23):
of them talk about what we have in common, what
we don't, where the challenges are for all of us,
and the opportunity. So I think he's I think it's
a realistic target and it's a good one to have,
really interesting for New Zealand, Team New Zealand, how we
can look to build and leverage the strengths of all

(02:43):
of us.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
You must find these very valuable for you as the
chair of Silver fir and Farms, because you're rubbing shoulders
with your stable mates from the likes of Fonterra and Zespery,
huge multinational companies on Amie.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I mean, I'm just stepping into this role and the
time spent it's on the plane everywhere, all the time
I'm learning, building connections just makes you think when you're
out of New Zealand think differently. You're just forced to
give a bit of time to where we're heading, why
we're doing what we're doing. So just incredibly grateful to

(03:22):
have the chance to get away and connect with others
and look at a different country, a different culture, completely
different market.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Hey, what are the challenges for the likes of silver
fern farms Because as you said, red meat is not
a big player in the market and Vietnam at the moment,
how do you make it a big player?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Currently they get most of their red meat or their
beef is all from India. It's buffalo from India, so
that any of the big wheat markets. So it's a
pretty basic both retail and food service. Everything's pretty basic here.
So I think there's how as the country gets wealth there,
how do we find the right partners, how do we

(04:03):
preempt where the right infrastructure is going to be to
help us churn up with the right people at the
right time with the right products. So there's spending time
up here as essential and it's a balance right for
all New Zealand companies meat processes. Where do you invest
your small amount that we've got in searching for and

(04:25):
growing new markets? And we need to pack those ones
where there is going to be the real growth. And
I think that we're seeing some science here of real
changes in infrastructure and investment within this country and net
wealth that we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Anna Nelson with US Chair of silver fir and farms.
She's on the trade trip to Vietnam with the PM.
Just a final word on your King Country property. You
run a fourteen hundred and fifty hectare breeding and finishing
block with HBBI Blair and others. How dry is.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
It since the beginning of October? We haven't had a
ho a lot of rain. Through to Christmas it was okay,
grass was growing well. Since early January nothing well. Six mills, sorry,
our six mills, and so it's dry. It's buddy dry
for us. Heavey is spending a lot of time cutting
poplars and willows and feeding out silag. We've got a

(05:18):
few pits of silage and really just making decisions around
who prioritizing stock, how to feed them. It's not extreme
for us, but it is very dry and it is
definitely impeding decisions on farm at the moment.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
There you go, Anna and Nelson. I hope some of
those wonderful King Country sharers, and I know some of them,
quite a few of them have come from Aria do
well on the Golden Shares this weekend. Thanks for some
of your time from Vietnam.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Thank you, Jamie. I'm sure those shares will do very
well and you know looking forward to seeing and hearing
how that goes. Thank you for the time