Agricultural meat marketing co-operatives

Abstract

New Zealand livestock farmers have faced unsustainably low returns for their livestock, particularly lamb, over the last three years. Their response has been to pressure the NZ meat processing and marketing companies, dominated by two large co-operatives, to reorganize and consolidate the industry to counter the power shifts that have occurred in the value chain. In this world of globalization, marketing co-operatives are facing: 1. consolidation in the value chain 2. changing consumer requirements The co-operatives' response to this inevitably involves significant amounts of capital. This report reviews the literature and discusses the common strategic goals the meat marketing co-operatives around the world have developed to counter the above two issues, and looks at the mechanisms which are available to fund these goals.