About RMPP
Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP) is improving the way that information and knowledge are shared among farmers to support best practice in the sheep and beef sector. A series of projects is driving sustainable productivity improvements to deliver higher on-farm profitability.
Each project is driven by a dedicated manager with significant industry experience, supported by representatives of RMPP partners and farmers through advisory groups. These teams work closely with farmers and industry professionals to achieve practical outcomes for farming businesses.
Why the need?
Variability in farm profits across the red meat sector is significant. While there have been gains in productivity over the past 20 years, there is still opportunity for improvement. The higher performers are achieving profitability of more than $650/ha, while the very top performers have achieved above $1,000/ha, season permitting.
What our farmers say
North Otago farmers, Sarah and Gareth Isbister, on how they're building their business through RMPP Action Network
Farmers, David and Sarah Smith, explain how our Extension Design Project has helped their business.
The productivity gap is also significant. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's Sheep and Beef Farm Survey showed that the difference in 'price per head' is quite small when comparing the farms performing in the top 20% to those in the bottom 20-40%. However, the difference in 'output per hectare' is substantial – around 135% in the volume and total revenue from lamb sales.
In 2011, the Meat Industry Association and Beef + Lamb New Zealand published the Red Meat Sector Strategy. This set out to look at ways of increasing the profitability of the sector in a sustainable way and promoting re-investment in the industry. RMPP was born out of this strategy.
The Red Meat Sector Strategy identified three core themes that, if implemented, have the ability to improve the sector's profitability and productivity. It considered the following themes and actions to be key drivers for a successful sector.
| Core strategy themes | High-level activities |
| Coordinated in-market behaviour | - Creating a strong brand position in premium markets - Acting with scale through greater coordination of exports in target markets |
| Efficient & aligned procurement | - Shifting the focus of competition from the 'farm gate' to offshore competitors - Ensuring suppliers are receiving a fair and sustainable reward for their performance - Increasing transparency of information |
| Sector best practice | - Improving productivity at all stages in the supply/value chain - Enabling a 'single voice' to provide clear leadership - Creating a strategy coordination group able to support sector initiatives - Developing New Zealand's farming systems - Selling the New Zealand story |
What is the solution?
The success of RMPP will rely on outcomes such as:
- Better knowledge and technology transfer - in other words, finding better ways of communicating key information to farmers about improving their productivity and profitability
- An understanding of what makes top performing farmers achieve their results
- Being aware of how costs can be reduced between the farm gate and the meat processors
- Benchmarking data to allow farmers to compare how their farm businesses are performing relative to others, including the best performers
- Generating more interest in sheep and beef farming as an attractive career
- Developing and using clear and consistent messages for our markets about the high quality nutritious red meat products that New Zealand's sheep and beef farmers are producing – NZ Inc.
- Developing and implementing an efficient and coordinated quality assurance (QA) system.