Addressing the first of three webinars in DINZ’s 2020 virtual conference Moffatt said farming got through the disruption of the 1980s and has gone on to thrive.
“We will get through the covid disruption as all in the industry share in the deep unease which is affecting our industry and the changing domestic situation agriculture is adapting to.”
In a review of the activities DINZ is doing to help create a more certain future Moffat highlighted the premium positioning of deer products, market diversification, sustainable on-farm value creation and being a cohesive and respected industry as key strategies.
“For the premium position of our deer products we can only focus on what we can control and who we can influence.
“We understand our deer velvet markets are weathering the storm okay but what can we control?
“We control the story and the integrity of our production systems.
“We have talked about ways to protect the value of our NZ velvet brand and to protect the investment velvet producers have made in our velvet system.”
A big step forward for this protection will be the introduction of the VelTrak system that will future-proof velvet supply chain integrity.
“VelTrak is being introduced to provide paddock-to-processor traceability and quality assurance for every single stick of velvet you produce and it will provide overseas buyers with the means of guaranteeing the provenance of that velvet.”
With more and more marketing companies displaying the NZ origin of their velvet ingredient that is becoming increasingly important, Moffat said.
“You have been working with supply chain compliance for the past few years. The good news is that VelTrak will make this easier and quicker for velvet producers.”
Venison is a different story with all in the industry dealing with the pressure of the impact of covid on venison markets.
“We came into covid on the back of some spectacular years for venison but with an overhang of frozen venison in the United States and Europe diversification into China was extremely important.
For DINZ there were three clear priorities – restore confidence in access to China, help marketers develop new channels to consumers and ramp up promotion of venison for food service as restaurants reopened.
“With China we have had success in confirming access for venison and this is allowing trade to resume but access for co-products and bones is unresolved and this will continue to have an impact on the schedule.”
All marketers are looking at new channels – retail, online and home delivery.
DINZ contract chefs are producing new support materials for chefs in China, Belgium, the US, Germany and the Netherlands ready to push venison as restaurants reopen.
“And they are reopening and they are buying venison again,” he said.
Companies have, to the best of their ability, sought to provide producers with some certainty about future prospects at a very uncertain time.
“I know there wasn’t enough information coming out during weaner sales in April and I understand that the method some venison companies chose to provide some certainty did not please everybody.
“But the clear signal that was sent at that time provided some certainty back into the livestock market in NZ, which allowed trade to resume and has set a floor for pricing in the market that allowed discussions to resume.”
Revenue is one contributor towards sustainable on-farm value creation.
The other is efficient production systems, which means getting more from less.
Moffat acknowledged sustainable on-farm value creation arises from enabling deer farmers to continuously improve their operations to deliver greater value more efficiently.
“It’s great to see velvet and venison productivity increasing.
“Higher carcase weights are testament to the better genetics, feeding and management that you as farmers have implemented over the past few years.”
Velvet weights improve year on year but need to be balanced with keeping an eye on production costs and keeping a balance in the farming business portfolio, Moffat said.
“Our confidence has taken a knock with covid but the history and the tenacity of deer farmers, the great reputation our products have on the world stage and the advancements we have coming through science tell me that we can continue to have confidence in our industry,” Moffat said.
