Father-and-son Frank and Justin Marx, from long-established family business Marx Foods in the United States, have been in Dunedin catching up with Silver Fern Farms staff. They are now travelling throughout the South Island and meeting farmers.
Marx Foods is the key distributor in the US for Silver Fern Farms' red meat.
The company's business had evolved over the years to include food importing, restaurant distribution and food marketing.
Frank Marx has been coming to New Zealand annually for the past 10 years, while Justin, who is the company's chief executive, has been coming for four.
This year, they were accompanied by a photographer to ''capture the story'' of New Zealand's red meat, through photographs and videography.
Each year the pair came, they learned more and were able to then return home and ''tell the story'', Justin Marx said.
They enjoyed the ''amazing interactions'' with farmers and that relationship worked two ways.
It was valuable for farmers to connect with them and hear the marketing story, while it was equally important being able to get their story and take it back to the customer.
Describing himself as a ''total city slicker'', Justin Marx said it had been a ''huge learning experience'', finding out how much hard work farmers put in to make a quality product.
New Zealand farmers were ''real professionals'' who produced things the right way because it was the right thing to do, rather than trying to ''hit check boxes on a list of marketing claims''.
Being able to share stories about sustainability really meant something to consumers, he said.
Demand for grass-fed beef continued to increase and, last year, Marx Foods got a lot of new accounts.
He was optimistic about the year ahead, with plans to ''go out there and build the market more''.
