Venison prices were back above the five year average and the current schedule price of around $9 a kg had come back a little following the spring period — "as it always does" — but only 30c-40c this year, compared to the typical dollar drop.
He attributed that to companies doing a good job over the last two years, growing more sales into North America and China, and he was looking forward to a good year ahead for venison with continued gains.
Dinz’s board recently released a new five-year strategy aimed at facilitating the industry’s recovery and building confidence in a sustainable and profitable future.
As a small and relatively new industry — only 50 years old — it had the ability to move with agility and pace, Mr Moffat said.
The strategy mapped out a plan for the next five years, focusing on growth and adding value. It was now being circulated among the deer farming community to get feedback before it progressed for implementation.
Asked about the general mood of farmers in the deer industry, Mr Moffat said there was a continued broad degree of frustration at the expected pace of change with freshwater and greenhouse gas policies.
There was also a great deal of frustration around some of the uncertainty created by forestry and carbon credit policy.
Farmers would need the ability to use their land to meet the increased costs of compliance. Many would take, or had taken, the opportunity of planting or protecting natives, and he would like to think there would be some recognition for that work.
There had been a "pretty substantial" reduction in breeding hind numbers over the past couple of years due to a combination of factors, including low returns for venison, increased costs of fencing to exclude deer from waterways and also forestation. Some farmers had also switched to producing more velvet.
Deer farmers were very passionate about what they did and they enjoyed farming deer. They produced a world-class product and needed to be rewarded for that, he said.
When it came to the new strategy, Dinz was always looking five to 10 years ahead as to what the industry needed, Mr Moffat said.
It had a real focus on market diversification and improved animal welfare and farming in a sustainable manner, including helping farmers have farm environment plans, aspiring to have a confident and growing deer industry.
During Covid was not the time for radical change, and the focus had been on supporting companies pivoting towards new markets.
Those projects were now coming to fruition and market conditions were improving and it was time to review the strategy and look at its priorities, he said.
There was global demand for high quality, naturally raised protein and also growing demand for natural health ingredients.
The venison kill over the next two to three years would decline because there were fewer deer and that smaller quantity needed to be placed into the most valuable and strategically important markets, he said.
Dinz was also working alongside farmers, marketers and science providers, including AgResearch Invermay, to make sure the systems the industry had were fit for purpose going forward.
Deer farmers were great users of information being provided and there were close connections with farmers, researchers and industry advisers, including vets, he said.
There were about 1200 deer farmers in New Zealand and the industry needed to make sure it was connecting to them, listening to what they wanted and providing what they expected for their levy dollar.
Mr Moffat, who took over the chief executive role three years ago, said he came into the job with a clear idea of where the priorities and requirements were.
Within three months, that was "completely tipped on its head" due to the Covid pandemic, and the next 12 months were reactive, as Dinz did what it could to provide assistance to farmers, processors, marketers and customers. Dinz was fortunate to have an excellent team of staff who knew their jobs, he said.
It was a difficult time given it was an industry that relied on selling high quality protein to the restaurant trade and all restaurants closed. Fortunately, the product could be frozen.
"We knew it was going to come right. It took longer than we had hoped to clear some of the backlog," he said.
The "incredible disruption" to shipping logistics had also had an impact over the last couple of years but that was also coming right, he said.
He had enjoyed attending recent stag sales; good quality genetics were sought after, Mr Moffat said.
The reduction in breeding hinds meant fewer stags were required and that had been reflected in some of the sales.
Generally, the mood was positive; the venison schedule staying around $9 through Christmas certainly helped, and while it was still not high enough to cover increases in costs, it was "heading in the right direction".
