Friday, March 29, 2024

Venison in vogue

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Venison is in vogue in the United States. Mark Mitchell, owner of Broadleaf – an American specialty meat company importer and distributor – said at the annual Deer Industry conference in Dunedin recently that Cervena was now “ripe for the picking”.
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“It’s one of the healthiest meats and it ticks all the right boxes,” Mitchell said. 

Mitchell and his wife Annie are Kiwis who moved to the US in 1988 to set-up their specialty meat business. In addition to Cervena – which is supplied exclusively by processor Duncan NZ – Broadleaf also sources buffalo, duck, ostrich and rabbit meat.

Broadleaf has a 5200-square metre warehouse about 35km from the Port of Los Angeles where some of the imported Cervena is further processed into mince or specially requested cuts.

Broadleaf uses Dot Foods, the largest food redistributor in the US, to deliver the venison and other meat products to foodservice outlets across 48 states. 

Dot’s director, Rodd Willis, follows key trends and influences in the $650 billion grocery and $650b foodservice industries in the US.

He said the $466b restaurant sector was where 51% of food was now consumed and the fastest-growing part of that sector was “fast casual” outlets, which was good news for venison.

In both the restaurant and grocery sectors “organic” and “natural” were “red-hot” with demand growing about 11% each year. In contrast there was an equally strong opposition to genetically modified foods.

Also in demand were protein foods, another tick in venison’s favour, Willis said.

Mitchell said that encouraging venison uptake relied on educating the frontline sales staff of restaurants and other foodservice businesses.

They were trying to encourage buyers to reduce portion sizes to help keep venison affordable and offset the shortage of supply.

'It’s one of the healthiest meats and it ticks all the right boxes.'

 

How to deal with the shortage in supply was an immediate worry as was how best to tap into the baby boomer and millennial markets.

Willis said imported products into the US needed to have a unique and compelling story. “How you tell the story will dictate its success.”

A simple storytelling example was QR codes on some organic products that relayed a story or video about the product when scanned with a smartphone.

The future for NZ venison in the US was bright but it was a market of “skinny margins”. Rising compliance and transport costs and higher minimum wages in restaurants were all increasing what consumers paid and bottom-line returns to producers and distributors.

Mitchell said every dollar of revenue generated about a 1% profit before tax. When questioned on whether the US economy would take a dive after November’s general election, Mitchell said he was still confident after hearing a recent speech by business magnate Warren Buffett who said the economy was robust enough to withstand a Trump or Clinton-led administration.

The US is NZ’s second largest market for venison and the largest chilled market. Frozen and chilled venison exports to the US for the 12 months to March 2016 were 2420 tonnes, 11% ahead of the previous year, and worth $27 million (FOB).

Germany is the number one customer buying 4639t, worth $55.9m.

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