The meat company AFFCO Holdings says its downturn in profit for the 2009 season is not a true reflection of how well it performed.
The company achieved a net profit of just over $25 million, almost 60% less than the previous year.
However chief executive Stuart Weston says the performance was fantastic, given the challenges of the global financial crisis and a major drop in the number of lambs available for processing.
Mr Weston says if the company hadn't invested a lot of money into upgrading its plants the result for the 2009 season would have been a lot worse.