increase font size
Alliance's Handpicked Lamb (pictured) recently won gold at the Outstanding NZ Food Producers Awards.
Alliance Group has been awarded five gold medals for its beef, lamb and venison at the Outstanding NZ Food Producers Awards.
The red meat co-operative won gold for its Pure South Lamb, Pure South Handpicked Lamb, Pure South Beef, Pure South Handpicked 55 Day Aged Beef and Pure South Venison.
The awards celebrate inspiring Kiwis who harvest, grow, and produce New Zealand’s outstanding food and drink. Entries are judged on a range of criteria including aroma, visual appearance, flavour, consistency, quality, sustainability, brand story, and packaging.
Shane Kingston, general manager sales for Alliance Group, says the array of awards across its portfolio highlights the co-operative’s commitment to quality and the passion and dedication of farmers.
“Our Pure South beef and lamb are our foundation brands and they are enjoyed in more than 65 countries around the world. The recognition of the special qualities of our new Handpicked Lamb is particularly pleasing,” Kingston says.
“Over the past five years, we have also steadily expanded our range to build a differentiated premium portfolio to provide our farmers with opportunities to partner with us on new products to meet demand from consumers who are also willing to pay a premium for red meat products and attributes guaranteed by a trusted brand.”
Judges praised the Pure South Lamb for its delicate, mild and mellow flavour and pleasant fine grained texture, and the Pure South Handpicked Lamb for its texture, mature depth of flavour and “tarty layer of fat”.
The Pure South Venison won accolades for its tenderness, succulence, and delicious flavours.
Pure South Beef was described as milk, juicy and tender with good clean tasting fat. The Pure South Handpicked 55 Day Aged Beef was singled out for its marbling and “good beefy flavour that is reminiscent of Grandma’s classic beef and Yorkshire pudding”.
Previously, the Pure South Handpicked 55 Day Aged Beef has also won multiple gold medals at the World Steak Challenge.
Alliance Group has secured greater access for chilled beef exports into China following approval of its Levin and Mataura plants to supply that market. With its first load of beef from Levin clearing Chinese customs in early January and a shipment from Mataura recently arriving in China, journalist Leo Argent talked to Alliance general manager safety and processing Wayne Shaw.
Alliance Group says it has secured greater access for chilled beef exports to China, following the approval for two of its processing plants to supply the market.
Reeling from two consecutive years of heavy losses, Alliance says it has appointed Craigs Investment Partners to explore external capital-raising options.
As expected, Alliance Group will close its Smithfield meat processing plant in Timaru, South Canterbury, making hundreds of workers redundant.
OPINION: Rural New Zealand has been taking some very big hits of late. The latest of these, the closure of Alliance’s Smithfield plant at Timaru, is yet another blow for the heartland – the engine room of the economy.
Among the regular exhibitors at last month’s South Island Agricultural Field Days, the one that arguably takes the most intensive preparation every time is the PGG Wrightson Seeds site.
Two high producing Canterbury dairy farmers are moving to blended stockfeed supplements fed in-shed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to boost protein levels, which they can’t achieve through pasture under the region’s nitrogen limit of 190kg/ha.
Buoyed by strong forecasts for milk prices and a renewed demand for dairy assets, the South Island rural real estate market has begun the year with positive momentum, according to Colliers.
The six young cattle breeders participating in the inaugural Holstein Friesian NZ young breeder development programme have completed their first event of the year.
New Zealand feed producers are being encouraged to boost staff training to maintain efficiency and product quality.
OPINION: The world is bracing for a trade war between the two biggest economies.
OPINION: In the same way that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, economists sometimes get it right.
OPINION: The proposed RMA reforms took a while to drop but were well signaled after the election.
