Horse meat on the menu?

Press, 27 December 1985, Page 1

Horse meat on the menu?

PA Auckland A Northland farmer hopes soon to put horse meat on the menu of top-class Japanese restaurants. A Kawakawa goat farmer, Mr William Gillanders, believes there is a good future for horse farming and is keen for other farmers to join him in an export venture to Japan. Horse flesh is considered a delicacy in Japan with top cuts fetching $l2 a kilogram. Japan imports about 40,000 tonnes of the meat a year. Most is used in processing sausages and canned products. Mr Gillanders said the horse-meat market was lucrative, as countries already exporting it consider it as. just a sideline. “They don’t farm horses but send old ones, which means there is a bit of a shortage,” he said. To make his idea a success, Mr Gillanders is keen

for other farmers to join his venture. The biggest hurdle is establishing an abattoir and packing house — under New Zealand regulations horse flesh must not be packed with other animal products. So far, only two farmers had shown interest, but he said other neighbours were not averse to the idea.

“I haven’t had any resistance from animal lovers,” Mr Gillanders said. If the horses were farmed they would be slaughtered when two or three years old, the same as cattle. Mr Gillanders believed this would be more humane than letting them become old and neglected. “Many horses in the north are not looked after properly. If they were worth money or farmed properly they might come to a sudden end but they would be well looked after in the meantime.”