The Dunedin based meat producer Silver Fern Farms has posted a loss for the 15 months ended December as it restructured its business after forming a joint venture with the Chinese firm Shanghai Maling.
Photo: RNZ / Maja Burry
It made a loss of $5.6 million dollars for the 15 month period, which included costs of closing down three of it's meat processing plants, the largest of which was in Fairton, Mid-Canterbury.
However, the company said looking at the past 12 months the net profit is just over $15m with revenue of $2.2 billion.
The chair Rob Hewett said it had been taking time to bed in the joint venture and the result is a start but should improve.
Rob Hewett said Shanghai Mailing regarded the result as satisfactory.
"This is a work in progress and they [Shanghai Maling] knew what it was when they bought in. This is about a long term strategy and as far as Shanghai Mailing is concerned it's certianly about a China strategy," Mr Hewett said.
Mr Hewett said trading this year had been significantly better than the same period in 2017.
"Looking forward, I think the business is in good heart," he said.