The founder and chair of the meat exporter ANZCO has won the Federated Farmers’ agribusiness person of the year award.

Graeme Harrison created the company in 1984, which now has sales of more than a billion dollars a year. It employs nearly 3,000 people on 11 processing sites, and has sales and marketing offices in Asia, North America and Europe.

Mr. Harrison has turned down similar awards in the past but says he was happy to make an exception this time, as it means a lot to him because of his own farming background.