Landmark week for Wilding, Te Mania

12-07-2010 | Hugh Stringleman

The unheralded, New Zealand-designed FoodCap meat storage and delivery system, to which Te Mania Angus cattle breeder Tim Wilding has hitched his wagon, has secured a breakthrough export order in China.

China's second largest beef processor Kerchin Cattle Industry Ltd, wants to build FoodCap distribution plants in strategic regions, improve the beef breeding stock in Inner Mongolia and grow high-end markets for a wide range of NZ beef and other meat products.

Prime Minister John Key attended the signing of a strategic co-operation agreement in Beijing last week.

For Wilding, the Beijing date was a rushed trip from North Canterbury, where the annual Te Mania bull sale broke records and set a top price of $36,000 and an average of $7406 over 112 lots.

Top price was paid by James Fraser, Stern Angus, South Canterbury, for Te Mania 08 423, a son of Te Mania Futurity 314.

"He also sparked a rush for other Futurity sons, with the nine catalogued averaging $10,111," said Te Mania general manager John Harrington.

"His figures were just out of this world, exceeding the breed average in every major trait, with an acceptable birth weight, phenomenal growth rates (+40 at 200 days to +100 at 600 days) and outstanding eye muscle area (+5.7), retail beef yield (+0.5) and intra muscular fat (+1.1)."

Te Mania has battled in China since 1996, trying various joint farming ventures and agents.

Wilding has also financially backed FoodCap, a system conceived by former avocado grower and food technologist Roger Palmer and installed for the first time in 2006 by Progressive Enterprises (PEL) supermarket chain at Otahuhu, Auckland.

PEL has centralised its North Island meat processing and packaging at Otahuhu, alongside the AMP meatworks, from where retail-ready packs go to all supermarkets overnight in heavy plastic FoodCap containers about the size of a tea chest.

Aging and conditioning are also part of the FoodCap process, which Palmer has patented and hopes to sell around the world.

Wilding has married FoodCap with Farmpure Angus beef accreditation and tried to link this back to Te Mania genetics. He got offside with the official Angus Association branding, Angus Pure.

Thus the China deal with the large Kerchin group validates FoodCap for export opportunities and Te Mania Angus genetics for integrated beef supply, conception to consumption.

With more than 2000 registered female Angus cattle, the Te Mania prefix is Australasia's largest registered Angus seed stock producer.

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