Lambs will have to meet certain criteria, which the company isn’t making public, and farmers will retain the choice of which meat processor they send them to.
“We haven’t been shouting it from the rooftops,’’ chairman John Faulks said. “It’s not huge, just an option we are offering some of our clients and there might be others who are interested as well. There’s already been a response to it.’’
“Tell them to give us a call,’’ he replied when asked what the criteria was for the lambs.
Rural Livestock was acting as a broker and a third party was financing the transactions.
Alliance Group Ltd said early in October that it would pay $20 upfront for lambs from qualifying shareholders, with the balance of the full price paid when stock was presented for processing.
Rural Livestock’s offer was not set up as direct competition to Alliance, Faulks said. “We’re just adding value for our clients.’’
He believed the schedule was not likely to come back so much this season from its starting point to a stage where the $40 upfront payment would not work for the company.
Rural Livestock had not talked about whether the offer would be just for pre-Christmas supply.
Alliance shareholder/suppliers were due to respond by the end of last week to the company’s $20 a lamb upfront offer, with the numbers likely to be confirmed in the next couple of weeks, chief executive Grant Cuff said.
