Final round up for rebel meat group

Lobby group Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) has decided to call it quits, following decisive defeats in its attempts to reform the meat processing industry, although it has left the door open for a return.

Chairman Dave McGaveston said members of the group had racked up ‘‘huge debt’’ over the last year in an effort to keep the organisation going. One of the founders and original chairman, John McCarthy, had $200,000 debt chalked up against his business.

MIE was formed in 2013 by farmers concerned about poor returns to red meat farmers, despite the sector being one of New Zealand’s largest export earners and global demand for quality protein products.

Early last year MIE launched a report Pathways to Long-Term Sustainability, in which it argued that over-capacity, overinvestment in animal procurement and insufficient industry spending on marketing New Zealand meat was costing the industry $450 million a year.

‘‘The report cost close to $1 million, which was partly supported by Beef + Lamb NZ,’’ McGaveston said.

Report author Ross Hyland is a highly paid Tauranga-based consultant whose companies charged more than $580,000 in fees to Lincoln University in 2013-14.

Beef + Lamb gave $297,000 to MIE, of which $40,000 went towards farmer awareness meetings when the group first started up, and an additional $20,000 was provided in April 2014 to develop a business plan and funding application. Once approved in July 2014, $237,000 was provided towards the Pathways Report, and communications strategy.

McGaveston said the rural media had not given MIE a chance, and it would like to take action against one news organisation in particular but did not have the funds.

‘‘We are really upset at the way in which we’ve been treated,’’ McGaveston said.