Kiwi food-processing expertise is making inroads in a growing range of overseas markets.

Australia has suspended shipments of live cattle to 11 Indonesian abattoirs after footage of animal cruelty was released.

Te Aroha locals are supporting the families of workers who lost their jobs when the local meatworks went up in flames.

'They're calling it a seasonal lay-off which is bull,' a worker at Silver Fern Farm's fire-hit Te Aroha factory says.

Sparks from a contractor's saw are believed to have ignited the fire that gutted a Waikato freezing works.

The beef processing plant badly damaged by fire at Te Aroha, near Hamilton, overnight may be rebuilt into a world-class plant, owner Silver Fern Farms says.

Photos from the fire at the Silver Fern Farms freezing works in Te Aroha, Waikato.

A spokesman for the New Zealand Jewish community has defended the animal-killing practice of shechita.

Animal welfare organisations are disappointed by the Government's decision to reverse a ban on the kosher killing of chickens.

A farming company part-owned by a Cabinet minister was able to brief him on how the Govt could protect its trade with Muslim countries.

More than 100 workers at Affco's Wairoa meatworks have been laid off, just weeks after returning to work.