Silver Fern Farms has issued its first Climate Change Risk and Opportunities Disclosure aligned to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.

At Silver Fern Farms our purpose is creating goodness from the farms the world needs and we see the transition to a low carbon economy as an important opportunity to create new forms of value for New Zealand and position our farmers as climate innovators.

It is clear that a changing climate will impact on all aspects of our value chain in the coming years. Understanding and exploring how we can proactively manage our climate risks and opportunities is fundamental to how we grow Silver Fern Farms in the future.

"Our customers increasingly want to know that their red meat is sustainably produced and we have worked hard to demonstrate authentic progress to reduce emissions and position Silver Fern Farms as a leader in nature positive food production,” says Kate Beddoe, Chief Sustainability & Risk Officer at Silver Fern Farms.

Key findings under the disclosure include the potential risk a changing climate poses to agriculture due to changes in grass growing patterns; risk of increased transport disruption and potential impacts on coastal and in-land infrastructure due to sea-level rise and flood events, as well impacts on demand for red meat due to changing customer preferences.

Opportunities identified include expansion of Silver Fern Farms’ market-leading Net Carbon Zero product; incentivising and scaling nature-positive/regenerative farming techniques and involvement in work to support R&D and technology to reduce biogenic methane emissions.

“While not shying away from the scale of the challenge ahead, our Disclosure speaks strongly to the size and scale of the opportunity for Aotearoa/New Zealand to build a world-leading low emissions, nature positive and climate resilient food system,” says Simon Limmer, Chief Executive of Silver Fern Farms.

Click here to read the full disclosure.