Finding a profitable place for venison in the Chinese food market is the focus of a market development programme testing venison cuts in a real restaurant setting.
The programme has marketers of New Zealand farm-raised venison moving beyond the test kitchen and into leading restaurants in China.
Deer Industry NZ (DINZ) venison marketing manager Nick Taylor says the programme involves DINZ and the three venison companies licensed to export to China – Alliance, Mountain River and Silver Fern Farms.
Funding comes from Passion2Profit (P2P), a joint venture between the deer industry and the Ministry for Primary Industries.
The objective of the P2P-funded work in China is to develop a deeper understanding of where venison best fits in certain Chinese cuisines.
This information is then shared with all major NZ venison marketers.
“The next step in the market development programme is to test venison cuts and recipes in a real restaurant setting,” Taylor said.
Two restaurant groups, Lei Garden and Gaga, are already participating, with two more chains soon to be added to the programme.
Lei Garden is a chain of fine dining restaurants featuring Cantonese cuisine operating in China, Hong Kong and Macau. Gaga is a chain that operates throughout China, offering traditional Chinese cuisine, as well western dishes with Chinese flavours.
“In August we held a workshop for Gaga’s development chefs who are now working with NZ venison importers to confirm cuts and supply for the promotions,” he said.
In return for promotional support from the P2P programme, Lei Garden and Gaga have agreed to share customer reaction and sales data.
Taylor says this information will enrich the venison industry’s understanding of how Chinese consumers view venison in Chinese cuisine and within a Chinese menu.
The sales data will also be used to create case studies that companies can use as promotional tools.
These will explain the cost of product per plate, cost of the meal profit margin and how well the product sold during the trial period.
While the potential in China is huge, so are the challenges.
“Consumers there have virtually no knowledge of venison, its taste and texture, they see deer as elite animals, not as the source of an everyday meal ingredient,” he said.
“However, younger generations of Chinese consumers are open to novel foods and while the quantities of NZ venison exported to China are tiny when compared to other red meats, China is now our third largest venison market.”
Alongside the P2P project, the three venison companies working in China have their own individual marketing programmes.
Meanwhile, DINZ chief executive Innes Moffat says the gradual reopening of Europe on the back of growing vaccination rates is good news for venison producers.
There’s healthy demand for chilled venison from restaurants opening for the game season, the challenge for exporters is getting it there.
While covid continues to cause disruptions, Moffat says European foodservice operators are upbeat about the current recovery
“Beef and lamb prices are increasing in Europe and this is helping marketers to lift selling prices for chilled venison,” Moffat said.
“European importers have bought larger volumes of venison this year than in previous years and are reporting that their retail and cash and carry customers have ordered well for the coming season.”
He says offsetting this good news is the expectation among venison marketers that shipping delays and resurgent Delta infections will disrupt the trade in the months ahead.
“The marketers are in a cleft stick,” he said.
“If there’s a covid resurgence a port may close entirely until infections subside so if they export chilled venison by sea, there is the real risk that the shipment will be held up in a port somewhere.
“On the other hand, if they ship by air they are faced with greatly increased air freight costs, which erode the better prices they are achieving in the marketplace.”
Air freight has traditionally been carried on passenger jets, but with the collapse of global tourism air freight is now having to pay its way, a situation that is unlikely to change any time soon.”
