Wagyu beef exports are gaining profits for farmers producing the marbled marvels. Photo/Supplied
Wagyu beef exports are gaining profits for farmers producing the marbled marvels. Photo/Supplied
First Light Wagyu is in the black and beginning South Island meat processing for increasing popularity of its marbled beef.
Chairman Marise James announced operating profits for both First Light Wagyu (NZ) Ltd and its associated Producer Group for the year ended March, at the recent AGM in Napier.
"Thepositive financial performance across our business is pleasing, particularly considering the volatility of global markets," she said.
"We introduced a new forex policy that has enabled us to be partially protected from these currency movements and earlier in the year engaged an independent forex adviser to ensure we can achieve our aim to deliver sustainable pricing."
New initiatives over the year to stimulate growth included LIC to managing artificial insemination.
"We are confident that the relationship with LIC, New Zealand's leading dairy herd improvement company, will see us through the vagaries of the dairy sector, which are not only around milk price but also calf welfare standards. The agreement also complements our angus breeding programme.
"Our strategy remains to build supply across both angus and dairy matings to help us achieve our processing target of 20,000 cattle per year by 2020.
"The aim to deliver to farmer shareholders a price premium over the long term has been challenging this year with the industry prime schedule remaining stubbornly high.
"Despite this, the return to shareholders averaged $1.06/kg or 20 per cent over the industry prime price for the year and is expected to continue climbing towards its target of $2/kg as markets continue to develop and the commodity price cycles."
The United States remained the company's largest export market with the UK, Europe, Canada and the UAE significant customers. New products included burger patties and hotdogs, with more than three million patties sold in the US alone.
In November 2016, First Light also launched its retail range into New Zealand supermarkets.
"We are a relatively young company that is hitting its straps both nationally and globally. However, it is important that decisions made by the company today take into account the size and scale of the company we plan to be."
More than 300 farmers have joined the First Light Wagyu programme, increasingly in the South Island prompting the establishment of a South Island processing agreement.
