Update: The Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand

New Zealand is a small Pacific nation 1600 km east 01 Australia and thus is far from the population centers of the Northern Hemisphere its major markets. New Zealand has an area of approximately 268,000 km2 (comparable to the area of the state of Colorado) and a population of just over three million. Its economy is based largely on the pastoral production of sheep and cattle: The meat industry is the nation's largest income earner, with dairy products and wool also providing significant export earnings. New Zealand meat processors were amongst the first in the world to freeze meat. and New Zealand has just celebrated its centennial of frozen meat exports. Today the New Zealand meat industry is still in the forefront of modern technology, with specialized techniques for dressing carcasses and for guaranteeing meat tenderness. Many of its technological advances have been pioneered by the Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand (MIRINZ), which was formed in 1955.