SFF

Silver Fern Farms (SFF) is asking suppliers if they are keen to help the Otago Rugby Football Union if it avoids liquidation today.

Silver Fern Farms' acquisition of the Frasertown sheep processing plant, near Wairoa in northern Hawkes Bay, shows the company's "absolute confidence" in the sheepmeat sector, chairman Eoin Garden says.

An initiative between Silver Fern Farms and giant supermarket retailer Tesco, which goes live in the UK this week, has been described as a very exciting milestone for the meat company.

United Kingdom supermarket chain Marks and Spencer has not been able to source enough Primera-bred lambs to move towards becoming exclusively Primera.

Wool marketer New Zealand Merino and meat company Silver Fern Farms are forming a joint venture to market and promote merino branded sheep meat and by-products.

Silver Fern Farms chairman Eoin Garden yesterday survived a challenge for his board position and was re-elected at the company's annual meeting in Waipukurau.

Flooding in Australia and storms in the United States have combined to push beef prices to record levels.

Staff at a North Island freezing works are riled at having their pay cut for the official two minutes' silence to remember the 29 men killed in the Pike River mine.

The continued focus on strengthening its balance sheet saw the country's largest meat company halve its profit last year, but Silver Fern Farms (SFF) says its three-year restructuring programme is finally behind it.

Yet again, the two southern meat co-operatives are talking at, rather than to, each other about merging.