After a record 12 months where the company picked up a number of accolades, including being named Best Beef in the World by the highly regarded Forbes.com, First Light is looking for farmers to join its team of finishers.
The producer group, with a company head office in Hawke's Bay, entered the market with grass-fed wagyu beef in 2011 and is now nationwide with over 25,000 head nationally.
Ten years on, the company is expanding farmer numbers to keep up with both domestic and international demand. First Light won gold in the World Steak Challenge in London last year and its beef is the key ingredient in Los Angeles burger restaurant HiHo Cheeseburger's premium burger, which has won Best Burger in LA Magazine's Burger Bracket two years running.
Now, the First Light team has opened up the gates for a limited number of new farmers/finishers to buy wagyu-cross calves from their upcoming spring weaner release.
"Payments are known upfront, based on a set per kilogram price, modelled off established market returns," says First Light general manager Wagyu, Matt Crowther. "We set pricing 12 months ahead. This year, on average, our shareholders get more than $7/kg. It's about 20 per cent over commodity on average, so that's breaking into a new bracket, which has been our aim for the last five years.