There will be no silver bullet to resurect the meat industry from its present profit crisis.
But adversity breeds invention, and its good to see some different ideas being floated, that may prove helpful.
Sourcing animals from overseas, has been talked about before.
But to secure full year product for selected markets, it may prove to be the best solution.
The hard bit as Fonterra found, is to keep quality standards secure, so as not to damage the brand and the home country's reputation.
The reality will be, we will need lots of fresh ideas, a fresh strategy, and a new attitude by both processors, exporters, and farmers alike, if a meat industry revival is to be successful.
Silver Fern Farms is looking across the Pacific to satisfy Northern hemisphere supermarket demand for year-round supply.
"The principle is growing lambs to our specification in South America," chief executive Keith Cooper told Rural News.
"Volume-wise, to make it meaningful, to make it worthwhile to spend the time and effort, we’re probably talking about half a million lambs a year."
"So it’s not huge but it is too big for us to do in NZ ."
The product would go on supermarket shelves July-September, allowing SFF to category-manage lamb supply for some of its leading customers. A joint venture partner has been found and SFF chairman Eoin Garden mentions Uruguay as a possible location.
He believes there are ways for producers here to meet that demand for out of season lamb too, even in Southland.
But as a shareholder from Canterbury pointed out, with dairy grazing paying 25c/kg dry matter over winter, lamb finishing contracts need to offer at least $10/head/month increments to compete. "Otherwise dairy cows will just keep eating the feed."
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