More venison heading to Asia

A delegation from Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) recently brought a taste of New Zealand venison to China and South Korea to gain more space for the meat on Asian menus.

The delegation included DINZ executive chair Mandy Bell, and executive chef Graham Brown, who created special dinners showcasing deer industry products.

While the region is more associated with exports of velvet, venison is starting to take off in China.

Bell says the trip was “very good”, adding that there were three specific focuses for it: velvet, venison, and a showcase of New Zealand’s export products.

“We had a fantastic reception at an evening event at the Ritz and had 30 really well-connected chefs and distributors from around Shanghai,” Bell told Rural News.

She says that while the event was small, it was fantastic to have a chef like Graham Brown show people how to utilise venison and incorporate it into the cuisine of that market.

“He had several days working with chefs before the showcase and then we had the special dinner and we had two other chefs that also joined up,” Bell explains.

She says that New Zealand’s venison industry currently doesn’t have any real competitors in the Chinese market.

“That’s why going over to China and South Korea was particularly interesting,” she says.