ANZCO Foods Market Update - November 2025

It's more of the same across our key beef and lamb markets, with strong demand and pricing continuing.

I had the chance to spend a week in the US earlier this month, with my key take-away being just how robust consumption of beef and lamb seems to be. The grass-fed beef category continues to grow strongly on the back of competitive pricing versus domestic grain-fed product, but also increasing consumer demand for healthy, nutritional, safe protein. Despite the upbeat picture, I have to admit I also walked away with a nagging sense of fragility within the US economy.

In China, the tipping point was the property market. The sudden and dramatic decline in house values materially changed that market overnight and has been a drag on the Chinese economy – and on our business there – for the last two years. In the US, it feels like it will be the equity markets that alter the current trajectory of consumer spending. The current volatility we are seeing – particularly in tech stocks – leaves me with a degree of nervousness as we head into 2026. With that said, many commentators have forecast a significant US market correction in recent years, yet none of those fears have come to pass, so may the good times roll for some time yet!

In the UK, overall economic conditions are also front and centre when it comes to the outlook for consumption trends. The latest data shows that consumer traffic across the major grocery chains was down yet again in October, continuing a trend that has played out all year. All eyes are on the upcoming Labour Government budget and what that may mean in terms of policy settings and the impact on businesses and consumer confidence in an environment where inflation remains an issue. That said, we continue to find homes for our premium lamb and beef at historically high levels, and we will continue to push hard on price until we really see a sign that the market has reached its limit.

Likewise, in Europe, we continue to see good demand for frozen lamb, and our beef business is performing very well. Chilled customers remain cautious and are buying hand-to-mouth to ensure they are minimising any risk around inventory levels.

As alluded to above, China remains a challenge because of its overall economic conditions, and we’re very fortunate as an industry that the US is so robust at the moment, offsetting that lack of Chinese competitiveness. As reported widely in the farming media in recent days, the industry took advantage of the major CIIE trade show in Shanghai last week to drive brand awareness around Taste Pure Nature – our country-of-origin brand for beef and lamb – which ANZCO Foods has always strongly supported. While the focus of that brand is largely on consumers in the retail channel, the lack of value in China in the short term means that ANZCO’s focus has been, and will continue to be, on a foodservice strategy. We’ve found real success in building up a collection of premium restaurants and chefs who are able to promote our Ocean Beef and Maimoa Lamb brands within the Shanghai hospitality sector. This will continue to be a driver for us in the year ahead as we look to cement the reputation of those two brands, and of ANZCO Foods as a supplier of some of the world’s finest beef and lamb products.

The model we’re following in Shanghai is based on what we’ve created with Greenstone Creek here in New Zealand – our premium grass-fed beef brand manufactured exclusively at our Eltham site. Given the very tight parameters for product to carry that brand, we work with fewer than 20 chefs, all of whom are passionate about what the brand brings to their menu and the consistency and quality of the product they can offer their customers. We're excited that our latest member of the Greenstone Creek ‘Inner Circle’ of chefs is Ben Bailey, who was determined to get Greenstone Creek on the menus at his two Auckland based restaurants – Ahi and Origine. It's great to work with high-profile chefs like Ben who have the ability to promote our product across the sector and reach wider audiences because of his following.

One last brand to call out is Angel Bay, our burger patty and meatball brand that you’ll find in your local supermarket freezer. During the past month, we’ve hit our two highest ever weekly in-store sales volumes, and our numbers for the end of the year look well on track to achieve double digit growth yet again, highlighting just how popular Angel Bay has become with New Zealand families, based on its quality, price point, taste, and convenience. It's a great example of how ANZCO Foods is adding real value to the raw material we have access to, and we’re working on some exciting initiatives that will maintain that growth trajectory in 2026 and encourage even more New Zealanders to become part of the Angel Bay community.