Red meat initiative set to go

The Red Meat Profit Partnership ( RMPP) has reached its first milestone of being fully established as a limited partnership and has appointed a board of directors.

The RMPP is a red meat sector and government collaboration designed to boost sheep and beef farmer productivity and profitability.

It draws together nine industry partners who are co- funding the programme along with the Ministry for Primary Industries through its Primary Growth Partnership ( PGP). They include Alliance Group, Anzco Foods, ANZ, Beef + Lamb New Zealand ( representing sheep and beef farmers), Blue Sky Meats, Greenlea Premier Meats, Progressive Meats, Rabobank and Silver Fern Farms.

The newly- appointed RMPP board of directors includes Malcolm Bailey ( independent chairman), James Parsons ( Beef + lamb New Zealand chairman), Scott Champion ( Beef + Lamb New Zealand chief executive), Graham Cooney ( Blue Sky Meats chairman), Graham Brown ( director of accounting firm Brown Glassford) and two independent directors, Tom Sturgess and Jane Smith. Smith is a farmer from Oamaru, who – with husband Blair – were named national supreme winners of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards in 2012. Sturgess is the proprietor of Lone Star Farms Ltd.

RMPP chairman Malcolm Bailey said the establishment of the entity and board put the foundations in place to deliver the five projects that the RMPP will focus on over the next seven years.

‘‘ The programme is all about taking on board the output of the red meat sector strategy and putting practical projects in place to deliver on a number of recommendations.

‘‘ Its focus is primarily around productivity behind the farmgate.

‘‘ It’s not about structural change in the industry – it’s about focusing on what is within farmer control, and there is significant financial upside from these projects,’’ Bailey said.