Farmed venison needs skilled marketing

Press, 4 June 1982, Page 19

Farmed venison needs skilled marketing

The New Zealand deer farming industry has got a classic opportunity to set up and adhere to a blueprint concept in meat marketing, according to the managing director of Canterbury Venison .(N.Z.). Ltd, Mr G’. A. Thompson. • In addressing the .annual conference of the N.Z. Deer Farmers Association in Napier recently, Mr Thompson, from Christchurch, said there were already, regretable indications that a mentality similar to that in the over-all New Zealand meat industry was arising in the deer industry.

■The wider New Zealand meat industry, after surviving 100 years, was still slow to take up an initiative towards more sophisticated marketing techniques. “In the race to construct deer slaughtering premises throughout the country last year, there seems to have been a lamentable lack of attention paid to the potential market needs and the means, through processing, by which the highest returns can be gained,” said Mr Thompson. “It is not enough that our new D.S.P.s and game packing houses, which have been developed to process farmed deer, do no more with the product than has been the tradition of feral venison packing. “The question must be posed: how can deer farmers achieve higher prices for farmed venison unless advanced processing methods and associated marketing

skills exist to achieve these objectives? “To effect the aims and objectives so necessary in a well-based marketing plan, there must be first and foremost a total commitment and unity of purpose within the industry, something that has already been hard to achieve.”

Mr Thompson said that there would be relatively small quantities of farmed venison available .over the next few years for export. "It therefore seems logical that a very carefully prepared strategy should be put in operation, not in a fragmented way, but with the cooperation of all processors and exporters for the regulated development of potentially lucrative markets in countries other than West Germany.” He said that the buyer must always be considered first in any marketing exercise and uniformity of standard is paramount, not only in the carcase grading procedure but in the range of cuts and packs to be developed. Mr Thompson strongly advocated a separate classification for farmed and feral venison.

“I believe there is a real danger that feral venison will detract from an ability to fully exploit farmed venison. “There is also a need to define which markets should be solely served with feral venison (for example, the traditional West German market) and those which by regulation of the antemortem inspection criteria

will be reserved solely for farmed venison. “This should be regarded as a marketing discipline which would offset any future risk of enabling an overseas market to apply its own definition between the two. "Feral venison will continue to be exposed to the

commodity market for game meats in world trade, competing as it does in West Germany against product from South Africa, U.K., Hungary, Austria and Poland. “In contrast to the feral product, fanned venison can be promoted as a prestige article with a,. high quality image carrying with it the mystical connotation of ‘game.’ “It would be quite unrealistic of the deer industry to approach the marketing arena believing that the buyer will be unconcerned whether the product is farmed or feral, as they are two entirely different products and markets should be developed accordingly.” Mr Thompson said that in many countries an educational programme on cooking venison to best advantage will be necessary market development. “The most effective way of ensuring that a restaurant guest, a hotel guest, or indeed a housewife, will not try venison a second time will be to allow the product to be prepared for the plate incorrectly.” He said that any marketing policy which favoured a “go-it-alone” attitude could

only lead exporters into competition against each other unnecessarily in the marketplace, which always results in price cutting and a lessening of incentive to fully exploit the market in question. “It would be ludicrous to allow venison marketing to develop in such a haphazard way when measures can be taken now to avoid such a situation developing.

“I am not an advocate of a single-seller approach because I am sure that such a philosophy leads to a work attitude little better than the average government servant, but marketing today cannot be successful without discipline and control.

“A marketing framework similar to that of the Kiwifruit industry would seem to be the most successful concept applied to date. “It is very important, however, that the motivation inherent within an atmosphere of private enterprise be retained, as it will only be by the sustained efforts of enterprising marketing people that the potential for farmed venison on world markets will be achieved,” he said.