By Lorrie Baumann

Silver Fern Farms is launching into the U.S. market with a range of grass-fed beef, lamb and venison products in exact-weight vacuum-sealed packaging, that provides the grocer with 20-25 days in the store’s meat case. Packages are clearly (and proudly) marked with the meats’ New Zealand origin, and early next year they will include a code that allows consumers to trace the product back to the farms where the animal was raised. “We have supply chain traceability all the way from the farm to the retailer customers,” said Matt Luxton, Director of Sales, USA for Silver Fern Farms. “There’s lots of companies in the U.S. that buy from everyone and put it into a retailer program. We pride ourselves in having that connection all the way through to the retailer.”

Silver Fern Farms will be supporting the retail roll-out in the first quarter of 2020 with a social media campaign that targets the conscious consumer as well as marketing collateral to assist the retailer that includes recipe fliers, shelf strips and promotional posters. Promotions and sampling programs are also included. “We have to make sure we help the retailer sell the product,” Luxton said. “We’re telling them [through the social media campaign] the story about water reduction, plastic use reduction, environmental standards, animal welfare standards. We know we’re doing a good job there, and we like telling the story.”

The meat inside the Silver Fern Farms packages comes from all over New Zealand, which assures that supply will be available year-round. “New Zealand has a very temperate climate, we have got the ability to have a year-round supply, as opposed to being under three feet of snow,” Luxton said. “If there’s a drought somewhere, 90 percent of the country isn’t having a drought.”

Animals graze on grass year-round, and their harvest involves minimal stress for them because their pastures are close to the processing facility. “The maximum trucking time in New Zealand is about two hours,” Luxton said. Primal cuts are shipped from New Zealand to the U.S. with a shipping time that averages about 3.5 weeks. During that time, the meat is stored in optimal condition for aging, according to Luxton. “The eating quality at the end of that process is better than when it comes out of the plant,” Luxton said.
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Once the meat has arrived in North America, it’s cut and packaged in one of three processing facilities in which Silver Fern Farms is a partner. “We believe that we’re at the top of the game with regards to food safety and product safety. We can get 112 days on our expiry on product coming out of our plant. We’re able to ship it to the U.S., process it and still provide 25 days after processing in the U.S.,” Luxton said. Silver Fern Farms retail partners are already auditing the plants, and that audit data is also available to future retail partners, he said.

Silver Fern Farms can also guarantee to retailers that their consumers will be getting a consistently great eating experience from the company’s meats, although the grading system that the company uses in New Zealand is a little different from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s grading. “In essence, we grade similarly to what the U.S. does. It’s a little more mathematical,” Luxton said. He promises that the steak that consumers get when they buy a package of Silver Fern Farms meat will be no different from the steak that the retailer sampled when he was making the decision to carry the product in his case. “You lose grass-fed customers when they get a bad experience,” he said. “We want to hold onto all of those people who are trying grass-fed meats for the right reasons.”

Retail packaging for the company’s products comes sleeved in a colorful design that includes the information that consumers want to know about the meat they’re buying. The country of origin is clearly marked on the front, as is the package weight, the cut, the number of pieces included inside and the number of servings it will provide. The back of the package has recipes and directions for cooking, and the clear instructions and clarity on cooking times will appeal to the consumer who might be more familiar with meal kit cooking than with planning a meal from scratch.

A QR code also provides transparency about the farms where the animal was raised. “It’s giving them a clear picture of what we do,” Luxton said.