Quality New Zealand Hides & Skins

Here at Silver Fern Farms, we supply premium preserved New Zealand cattle hides and skins, calfskins, sheep, lamb and deer skins as leather pre-cursors. Hides and skins are processed through trusted local partners and supplied to tanneries and leather finishers worldwide. Our New Zealand hides and skins are prized for their consistent quality, backed by Silver Fern Farm’s global supply chain transparency, trust and provenance. 

Products are collected to your specifications, including preservation state (wet salted or wet blue) and grade.

Our leathers team bring decades of industry expertise and a globally respected, cross-cultural approach to client service. We can work with you to build a credible, sustainable, environmentally conscious brand story with products from grass-fed, free-range New Zealand farms that meet strict animal welfare standards.

Our premium hides and skin products include:

  • Bovine hides (ox, cow, heifer, bull)
  • Calfskins
  • Ovine (lamb, sheep)
  • Deer skins

By partnering with us, our customers receive a trusted supply chain network, reliable supply, and optimal partnerships for delivery every step of the way. While we don’t make leather, we have a range of raw hides, skins and wool products available on request. Our global service solutions can also provide support with manufacturing specifications, logistics, sustainability, regulatory guidance, and marketing to help customers grow value for their businesses around the world.

As an example, we have recently worked in partnership with Tasman Leathers to create New Zealand's first-ever Toitū-certified Net Carbon Zero Leather. Ethically raised, traceable to supplying farms, and fully certified, it meets the needs of conscious consumers who demand both premium quality and tangible proof of positive change.

Reasons to buy from Silver Fern Farms:

  • Buy directly from the primary processor: When you work with Silver Fern Farms, we have a direct link to supplying farms so we can offer a transparent, direct supply chain with no intermediaries
  • Well-established global supply chain selling to 60+ countries.
  • Regulatory compliance assistance both domestically and internationally
  • Our hides and skins are sourced from New Zealand grown, grass-fed, free-range animals, ideal for customers seeking a commitment to animal welfare and trusted provenance
  • Our Sustainability Action Plan demonstrates our commitment to nature positive farming including through our validated Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)  for Forest, Land, Agriculture (FLAG) emissions reduction targets and a no-deforestation commitment
  • Access to scale from New Zealand’s largest primary processor of beef, sheep, and venison products

Finding the goodness from nose-to-tail

At Silver Fern Farms we’re on a journey to establish nature positive farming at the heart of a more meaningful connection to the people, places, origins and experiences of our agricultural products.

We’re always looking for more sustainable ways to move our industry forward. We care about how our animals are raised, valuing the ‘whole’ animal – respecting the livestock we farm. That’s why we’re finding better ways to use all parts of our animals, creating goodness from the farms the world needs.

Through our Sustainability Action Plan we hold ourselves to account in our goals to address our material issues with clear targets against these.

Learn More

Committed to raising animals with care and respect

Silver Fern Farms has systems & policies in place to ensure the welfare of animals throughout our chain of care.

Animals are grass-fed and free range, so they can eat and live as they would naturally – reducing stress and promoting better animal welfare. Silver Fern Farms also complies with New Zealand Government’s legislative requirements, and we are bound by the Animal Welfare Act of 1999.

The Government's Animal Health and Welfare standards align with the globally recognized Five Freedoms to ensure animals are free to express normal behaviour.

New Zealand Farm Assurance Programmes (NZFAP) provide additional confidence and certainty to millions of consumers world-wide that products from New Zealand's sheep, beef and deer farms are authentic, genuine, and safe. Collectively they provide assurances regarding integrity, traceability, animal health and welfare, people, farm and natural resources and biosecurity.

LEARN MORE

Animal Traceability

Traceability is important for product safety and quality assurance programs. It helps to protect our livestock from disease and harm, as well as farmers' livelihoods and New Zealand’s reputation as a leading supplier of premium farm products.

In addition, our beef and venison livestock are also recorded in the National Animal Identification and Traceability (NAIT) system overseen by OSPRI – a not-for-profit partnership between New Zealand primary industries and government providing auditable evidence of the origin and provenance of our products.

National Animal Identification Tag (NAIT) Programme

Farmers

Farmers receive a NAIT number linking person and the location where animals are in their care.

Animals

Cattle and deer are tagged with Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) ear tags.

Register

Tagged animals are registered against a NAIT number online in the NAIT IT system.

Record

Animal movements between locations are recorded online in the NAIT IT system, providing traceability.

NEW Ethical, Traceable Net Carbon Zero Leather

Silver Fern Farms and Tasman Leather proudly present New Zealand's first-ever Toitū-certified Net Carbon Zero Leather. Ethically raised, traceable to supplying farms, and fully certified, it meets the needs of conscious consumers who demand both premium quality and tangible proof of positive change.

Each hide is drawn from Silver Fern Farms’ Net Carbon Zero By Nature™ programme, ensuring 100% of the end-to-end emissions associated with finished leather are absorbed by trees growing on supplying farms. Payments to farmers for these carbon removals are then reinvested to boost further native plantings and biodiversity on New Zealand farms, ensuring our eco-friendly practices continue to grow.

Sourced from beef cattle grass-fed 365 days of the year, our herds graze freely on pristine New Zealand pastures - GMO, hormone and antibiotic-free.

LEARN MORE

Certification Customers & Consumers Can Trust

Our Net Carbon Zero finished leather is Toitū-certified to the ISO 14067:2018 product standard. Toitū Envirocare is New Zealand’s leading independent climate performance certifier and a government-owned Crown Research Institute. Certification is enabled through our partnership with AgResearch, which measures emissions across the entire lifecycle—from animal birth to finished leather.

To offset emissions, we use satellite technology and machine learning to help us identify on-farm permanent vegetation that is absorbing the equivalent amount of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere. We then contract and purchase this carbon from our own farmer suppliers. This approach rewards farmers for producing top quality livestock and actively caring for the land through their environmental management practices.

Net Carbon Zero by Nature

'Net Carbon Zero by Nature’ means that 100 percent of product emissions have been balanced out by carbon removals via vegetation growing on the farms where animals were raised. ​ Products are independently certified as Net Carbon Zero against an international (ISO) product standard - Toitū Envirocare, with Silver Fern Farms contracting and purchasing the carbon removals from supplying farmers in a process we call “in-setting”. ​

Chief Sustainability & Risk Officer Kate Beddoe says, “What’s unique about Net Carbon Zero By Nature is that the certification is achieved by what our farmers do on their own farms to balance-out emissions, rather than by simply purchasing carbon offsets on the open market as is the case for many other carbon zero products. Payments to farmers are then reinvested to boost further native plantings and biodiversity on New Zealand farms."

Introducing Tasman Leathers

Tasman Tanning began in 1953 as a family business. Their leathers speak to their expertise and the meticulous care that goes into every stage of the production journey. 

Tasman Tanning leathers are predominantly used in the footwear, upholstery and aviation sectors - trusted by global brands such as RM Williams, Steel Blue, Blundstone, Moore & Giles, Hestra Gloves, Redback and more. They work with boutique designers as well as large-scale manufacturers.

Tasman Tanning is built on a tradition of craftsmanship, rigorous quality control, innovation and a spirit of client partnership.

In proud partnership with Silver Fern Farms, Tasman Leathers has crafted an exclusive range of limited edition, highest grade, traceable, Net Carbon Zero sustainable leathers.

GO TO TASMAN LEATHERS

The Beauty and Durability of New Zealand Leather

The beauty of New Zealand leather lies in its story, its origin, and the journey that brings it to the most discerning fashion, footwear and furniture brands of the world.

One of the main reasons that New Zealand grown leather stands out in terms of durability is the nation's unique climatic conditions. New Zealand’s temperate climate, characterised by moderate temperatures and abundant rainfall, ensures that livestock are raised in optimal conditions.

This nurturing environment leads to healthy livestock and high-quality hides. When these hides undergo tanning and processing, the resultant leather retains exceptional strength and resilience, making it perfect for products that require long-lasting materials.

Would you like to know more about our hides, skins and wool products?

Please connect with our Leathers Business Manager, John McNeill by filling out the form below with your contact information.

GET IN TOUCH