Alliance Group market-ready lamb packs to hit Chinese shelves

The co-branded lamb range will land in China’s retail and food service sectors as the co-operative and its in-market partner Grand Farm strengthen their close ties.

The initial focus  will be on the upper end of the Chinese market in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Harbin The lamb will be available from eight retail chains boasting 200 selected outlets before being rolled out to other parts of the country.

Alliance chief executive David Surveyor said the New Zealand-packed lamb was designed for the Chinese market and co-branded Pure South and Grand Farm.

“It marks a major milestone in our vision to create new product forms and ranges that will be either produced from source or further processed in the market to meet the growing demands of China’s food service sector.”

The regions were selected based on the higher buying power of their consumers, concentration of foreigners and higher economic activity, he said.

“This initiative will help us build a deeper understanding of the supply and value chains and eventually secure the added value we are seeking in this market with a ‘packed-at-origin’ offering.”

Alliance’s focus in China was to obtain more market value for its 5000 farmer-shareholders by understanding consumer tastes and improving its matching of products and markets, as well as investing more in new products and packaging, he said.

In April, the co-operative signed an agreement with Grand Farm at a ceremony in China. The agreement, which signals further strategic co-operation between the pair, sets out a  plan to improve the returns and add value to both businesses.

Grand Farm is the best known distributor and marketer of top quality red meat in northern China. The company owns 96 meat shops, operates 260 branded meat counters in selected hypermarkets and supplies over 1000 hypermarkets in China.

Alliance has been working in China since the mid-1990s and is now the country’s largest exporter of New Zealand lamb to the country.