P.PSH.1372 - Building red meat producer-led value adding business ventures

Summary

This project undetook to develop new, high value products that maximise the value of the whole carcase, diversify farm revenue, and meet the changing needs of consumers.

Objectives

The purpose of this project was to increase awareness, knowledge and confidence of red meat producers to enable them to build scalable value-added ventures that increase carcase value and deliver increased revenue back into their farming businesses. The Red Meat Value+d Program was developed and delivered as an initial pilot to determine whether red meat producers would be willing to explore opportunities for value-adding and whether capability to develop value-adding ventures could be achieved. The program was designed exclusively for red meat producers with the objective being to equip them with the skills and networks they need to build successful and scalable value-adding businesses.

Key findings

The project has clearly achieved the key objective of increasing awareness, knowledge and confidence of red meat producers to enable them to build scalable value-added ventures that increase carcase value and deliver increased revenue back into their farming businesses. This is evidenced by the following outcomes reported by participants:

▪ much greater focus and understanding on target customer segments; deeper understanding into broad consumer trends, packaging and technology considerations
▪ developed a deeper understanding of the importance of branding and marketing and developed detailed brand positioning and strategy
▪ implemented key business foundational activities such as registration of business, protection of assets and understanding business structures
▪ implementation of value chain strategy in order to scale up different streams of business, for example in one case a participant had the opportunity to purchase a butcher shop and retail brands to continue to grow the value-adding side of their business
▪ overcame key challenges in relation to supply and processing constraints eg. co-ordinating efforts with other producers from the region
▪ significant increase in confidence to promote and ‘pitch’ business, in particular with new business customers and strategic partners. A number of the businesses have been able to secure additional customers (supply to local restaurant and pub) and new opportunities for collaborations such as on-farm dining experiences and agri-tourism
▪ refinement of roadmap and integrated detailed project management tools and capabilities into the business; significant pivot of the business to create a portfolio of offerings and build the supply chain of each separately 
▪ deeper understanding of channel considerations, pricing strategy and margins
▪ better facilitate collaboration and co-ordination between team members; identification of capability gaps.

Benefits to industry

The project developed producer capability to accelerate the development of new, high value products that maximise the value of the whole carcase, diversify farm revenue, and meet the changing needs of consumers.

MLA action

MLA will continue investing in activity focused on enabling producers to diversify their business and creating new sources of revenue for producers beyond today’s farm gate.

Future research

MLA will continue investing in activity focused on enabling producers to diversify their business.