Plea for venison marketing

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 14

Plea for venison marketing

New Zealand’s deer farming industry has been urged to avoid incurring the same problems as the sheep industry in selling its meat. The plea came from Dr Jock Allison, southern South Island Agricultural Research Director for the M.A.F., at the conclusion of a farming seminar at Haast recently.

He said the sheep industry had failed to move quickly enough in further processing sheep meats to give added value in marketing its products. The deer farming industry had some lead-up time before significant numbers of deer became available for slaughter. This time should be used for intensive product and market development in preparation for the potential large increases in venison production, he said. “The deer farming sector has the opportunity to make a really good job of product and market development. "We’ve got a very new industry in the deer meat industry and we haven’t got much product at present. Now is the time to explore market opportunities and requirements, and to look at ways of presenting the product,’’ he said. New Zealand produced

only 1400 tonnes of venison last year, of which about half was from farmed deer while the remainder was shot, wild venison. However, Dr Allison predicted an upsurge in production next year as a result of the uncertainty in the deer velvet market. In addition, he estimated that within 10 years annual venison production could reach 40,000 tonnes. ■ This estimate was based on calculations which showed that'New Zealand could have one million bearing hinds within seven or eight years. “If .the industry stabilises at that figure, farmers will be presenting stags and hinds for venison production because these animals have a life of 12 to 14 years,” he said. “If we have an 85 per cent calving rate — an achievable figure — and a 10 per cent replacement rate, then we’ll have up to 750,000 animals for venison production each year.” Given an average carcase weight of 55kg, that would mean 41,250 tonnes of veni- • son a year, with a potential annual return of about S24OM.

“That is a huge amount of venison, and the sort of figure which the marketers

and product developers need to be thinking about now,” Dr Allison said. The legs and saddles from the leaner, young animals (the higher priced cuts) could be produced and sold relatively easily, he said. However, the shoulders : were less attractive to the consumer and would be much harder to sell. “With the prospect of large volumes of venison, we should be thinking about chopping up the less attractive cuts into meal-sized portions for stews and casseroles. We should be looking at producing portion-cut venison steaks of exactly

the same weight and size, venison shish kebabs, sausages and salamis.” Another possibility was turning venison into dried meat strips, similar to the very popular highly-priced product known as biltong in South Africa and beef jerkey in the United States. Dr Allison also stressed the importance of presenting a palatable, tender product. He advocated that the deer industry make electrical stimulation to tenderise meat mandatory. Research at Invermay had already shown that electrical stimulation of deer carcases after slaughter would greatly improve tenderness.