The Country 21/05/25: Anna Nelson talks to Jamie Mackay

Yesterday, Silver Fern Farms Co-operative held its AGM in Dunedin. It was Nelson's first as the co-operative's chairwoman, and Rob Hewett’s last with the company after serving 17 years as a Director. Nelson has officially taken over Hewett’s former role as co-chair of Silver Fern Farms Limited. But has SFF gone woke over emissions reductions?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we've talked about dairy farming, let's talk about red meat.
It was Anna Nelson's first AGM as the chair of
the Silverfern Farm's Cooperative yesterday here in Dunedin and Rob
Hewitt's last with the company after serving seventeen years as
a director. Hey, there's a lady by the name of
Sally Ray who writes for the Otago Daily Times, one

(00:21):
of the few good ag journalists we have left in
this country. And Anna, she's written a really interesting piece
in today's edition, and it's all about silver Fern Farms
and your focus on a missions reduction, being driven by
what customers in the markets want. Now, there has been
criticism Anna, not from me, of course, from some who

(00:42):
were saying silver Fern Farms have gone a bit woke.
What do you say in your defense?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah? Good a Jamie good, good to catch up And yeah,
I thought that that was a great piece by Sally
Ray in our defense and our defense. So we're really
driven by what the higher paying customers globally are wanting
from their products that they're purchasing from us, So they

(01:08):
have a real driver to reduce emissions in their supply
chain and our products and Ultimately, our farmers are part
of the supply chain, so if we want to supply
those customers, the high end customers, we have to be
taken into account and acting on that.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
So hang on and aw is the premium for the
lower missions meet at the moment? Is it out there
in the market?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, that there is absolutely only on small percentages one hundred,
That is correct, Jamie. But we have got customers increasingly
and pretty frequently right now, Whole Foods Costco International, big
customers that are coming to us with their demands, and
they're actually talking to us about how they can help

(01:55):
fund changes on farmers supplies farms as well to meet requirements.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Silver Fern Farms has invested in over nine million in
Agri zero Enz, which is getting a bit of stick
in some quarters. You now have a shareholding of just
under eight percent. But to be fair to silver Fern Farms,
this investment represented zero point one percent of total revenue.
And you guys are going on to say that about

(02:22):
twenty percent of your customers want this low emissions product.
Is the number really that high?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah? Well, that's that's from then and the team executive team,
and we're seeing evidence of that at the board with
some really interesting reporting around the premiums that are available,
as I talked to before, so I don't have all
those details with me now, but yes, that is how
it is, and it's increasing. It's increasing really frequently, so

(02:53):
more customers from different countries to different markets EU UK's
a widespread move in this direction.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Hey Anna, this is totally off the script, but I
was reading a story from the Southland Times from way
back in two thousand and nine. It involved a great
friend of mine is not very well at the moment
at all, and John Key had turned up at his
farm in Riversdale and it was all about getting this
super conglomerate meat company. Two thousand and nine. This is

(03:25):
and I think it was when the Alliance Group and
Silver Fern Farms were thinking of getting together and John
Key was all for it. Did we miss a trick
back then? And I know it predates you by a
long way.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Does predate me potentially, We did miss a trick back then.
I think it's fair to say that plenty of us
in the industry are reflecting on that and why, probably
the reasons why it didn't happen in what we can
learn from that. But we have a lot less livestock
now than we did back then. Obviously we've we've reduced capacity,

(04:03):
but there is more hard work to do there. So yeah,
family believe we need good competition pricing wise at the
farm gate, but there's a lot of room for us
in this industry to cooperate.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, I was thinking to you guys. You guys as
an industry must look jealously at the dairy industry model.
You know, Fonterra, the big strong player eighty percent of
the market. But then there's there's your open country dairies,
your sin Lays, your Westlands or whatever. Just to keep
them honest.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Absolutely, we need we need good, good competitive tension at
the farm gate one hundred percent. But the ability to
cooperate much more, particularly out of the market, is something
they're I'm really really determined to help see happen.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Okay, Just in summary, then it's been a good year
or a good season for sheep and beef farmers price wise,
hasn't necessarily been a good year for the meat processing
company for many reasons including procurement pressures. If you want,
it's not going to get any easier because we're losing,
as you well know, because you're a sheep and beef
farmer up in the king Country. We're losing productive farming

(05:12):
land to pine trees and land use change.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, that's right. It's very confronting. Confronting is farmers in
our communities where it's happening, and it's confronting for silver
and farms as livestock numbers go down and as we
head in to the winter months the second half of
the year particularly, that's where we really feel it in
the processing sector.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah, and the good news is for the farmers anyhow,
not necessarily for you. The prices look like they're going
to remain strong.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah. Look, we've got great markets, are strong in the
next few years, are looking really positive, So that is excellent.
Then farmers can take real confidence out of that. As processes,
we've got some challenges to manage. But the direction of
trouble with pricing and market in really those supply demand

(06:03):
dynemics globally is meaning that there's a really positive story
at the moment.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Anna Nelson, co chair or you're actually the cooperative chair
and co chair of Silver Fern Farms Limited. Thank you
very much for your time today on the country. Good
to read Sally Ray's excellent work. Hello Sally, if you're
listening in the ODT. It's good that some journalists and
media were invited to the AGM. You realize that in
Kim Keith Cooper's Diana, which predates you as well, I

(06:30):
would have been first on the invite list for a
cup of tea and a scone.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Hey, it's noted, Jamie noted I did say to the
meeting yesterday, hold me to a couple of things, so
you can hold me to your invite for SCON next year.
In really cool Sally Ray, and I just want to
call out, you know. Note Rob Hewitt's seventeen year contribution
in Moving On at dog Tacker Day. Thanks Rob for

(06:55):
all you've done.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Good on you, Hey, Anna Nelson, I might catch up
with you at field Days.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Thanks for your time on fans, great teas timing,