Silver Fern Farms says its farmer-suppliers will need to show they're committed to the company for it to rebuild its badly damaged Te Aroha meat processing plant.
The plant's slaughter house and boning room were destroyed by fire over the weekend, after contractors installing a vent left a residual heat source which ignited some time after the work was finished.
The Te Aroha plant processes about 100,000 cattle a year and employs 350 staff.
Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper says the company wants to make sure it has support from farmers in the interim, to give it confidence to make decisions about rebuilding the plant.
In the meantime, Silver Fern Farms is transporting livestock to its Dargaville, Hawera and Hastings beef plants for processing.
