Kangaroo meat company targets European expansion

Kangaroo meat distributor Macro Meats is planning to establish a processing plant in Europe to target the home cooking market.

Kangaroo production was commercialised in the late 1980s and Macro Meats now processes about 10,000 tonnes/year for consumption in more than 30 countries.

The South Australian company currently sells about 75% of its kangaroo products domestically but is looking to grow sales in Europe, North America and Asia.

In October, Macro Meats will launch a species-specific range of premium kangaroo meat at SIAL Paris — the world’s largest food innovation show.

Moving from success in restaurants to finding a place in retail outlets with everyday kangaroo products such as hamburgers, sausages, meatballs and stir-fry strips has been a key to Macro Meats’ success in Australia.

However, export rules require meat to be shipped from Australia in whole pieces, making it less appealing to the cook-at-home market, and prompting Macro Meats’ decision to open its own value-adding processing plant in Europe.

“If you’ve just got lumps of meat or steaks, sometimes it’s a little bit too much when you’re trying to introduce it to people for the first time. So we want to be able to do meatballs or burgers or stir fries depending on the country and what they want,” said managing director Ray Borda.

“This is a pilot plant and depending on how that works we hope to end up having a processing plant in Europe, Asia and the Americas,” Borda said.

“It’s ambitious, but we think we are sitting on gold — Australia is the only place in the world where you can get this product from and if we control it and market it then nobody is going to be able to do it like we do.”

There are an estimated 50–60 million kangaroos in Australia. About 2.5 million kangaroos are commercially harvested a year.

Macro Meats’ species-specific range is designed to promote greater consistency for consumers and will include the mild-tasting Paroo (red kangaroo), medium-flavoured Mallee Roo (western grey kangaroo) and the robust Mulga Roo (eastern grey kangaroo).