Mountain River had solved the problem in a most rudimentary way by employing in-market partner Hunter McGregor to make onfoot deliveries in a wheeled chilly bin.
McGregor, originally from Otago and founder of food and beverage importer and distributor Shanghai Rata has been an important link in developing the Shanghai market.
He was fluent in Mandarin so had been able to get firsthand feedback from chefs.
“He’s been our eyes and ears in the market – he’s distribution, sales and research,” Sadler said.
Mountain River’s goal was to at least double the number of customers in Shanghai and make further inroads into Beijing.
Examples of how venison was being served include smoked rump on a fivestar hotel menu for NZ $57. At a Chineseowned German restaurant chain, ribs and goulash were selling for NZ $35.
Given the population of Shanghai (14.35 million) and Beijing (11.5m) the issue from a marketing and distribution perspective was finding and maintaining a niche small enough, Sadler said.
Mountain River’s goal was to at least double the number of customers in Shanghai and make further inroads into Beijing.
A WORK IN PROGRESS
Selling New Zealand venison into China was still very much a “work in progress”, Deer Industry NZ (DINZ) venison marketing manager Marianne Wilson said.
DINZ has done six months of research in China talking to consumers and chefs in three cities. Consumer experiences of eating venison hadn’t been overly positive because of the use of slowcooked, tough cuts.
Many were also reluctant to try medium-rare cooked cuts because they were unaccustomed to them.
“We need to come up with creative solutions – attitudes will change in timebut we may need to look at different ways of serving Cervena,” Wilson said.
At the Deer Industry conference meat processors and marketers were asked how the much-promised access of chilled meat into China would benefit deer farmers.
Silver Fern Farms Dean Hamilton said long-term prospects were probably positive but it certainly wasn’t a short-term “nirvana”.
Processors were still waiting to have plants accredited for frozen deliveries and there was also the problem of China’s cool storage and delivery chain, which needed a lot of work to make it efficient and reliable. '
Glen Tyrrell of processor Duncan NZ said chilled access would provide potential inroads for the higher-value cuts. They were best-served rare, which as research and experience had shown was not popular with most Chinese.
“Whether chilled access will really be a benefit remains to be seen.” China is not on the top 10 markets list for NZ venison.
Total exports to China for the year ended March 2016 were 613 tonnes ($3.7m), a sixfold increase on 103t in 2015.
