Dalene Wray uses people per square kilometre to put things in perspective about livestock at her company’s farm. “We have 35,000 cattle and every animal has one square kilometre to graze in,” she tells GN Focus. “That means that in Hong Kong, where I’m based currently, which has an area of 18 square kilometres of farmland, there would only be 18 cattle,” says Wray, General Manager, OBE Organic, which is Australia’s largest and longest-operating organic beef programme.
Compare this to humans — in Hong Kong, the land population density in mid-2012 stood at 6,620 people per square kilometre. And, the UAE had 89.85 people per square kilometre in 2010, according to a World Bank report published in 2012.
“There are wide open spaces, big skies, a pristine environment and cattle roaming freely in the wild,” she says when asked to describe the life of livestock, which finds its way to shelves in the UAE’s supermarkets, with Carrefour in Mall of the Emirates showing the largest sales.
“The UAE remains Australia’s largest lamb market, accounting for 25 per cent of Australian exports,” according to a statement issued by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) issued in August. Total exports to the Middle East climbed to 6,284 tonnes during the month — an 81 per cent rise in volume compared with the same time last year (3,500 tonnes), according to MLA’s statistics. Beef exports to the Middle East have reached 43,700 tonnes, compared to 19,700 tonnes for the same period last year.
Most Australian farmers believe that the way an animal is treated reflects in the taste of its meat. Add to that the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for farm management and sustained attention to regulations, and the winning formula is easy to spot. Jamie Ferguson, Regional Manager, Mena, MLA, says, “In the UAE, since the emergence of quality hotels and international chefs, the growth in demand for Wagyu beef and other meats from Australia has been phenomenal. >
“Some of these products cost more than $100 (Dh367) per kilogram. The other products becoming popular are Australian grass-fed, free-range organic beef and lamb. They are available at Carrefour, Spinneys and Prime Gourmet. Chef Marco Pierre White’s Grill in Conrad, Dubai is one of the first restaurants to serve Australian organic lamb and beef,” he says.
A growing appetite for Australian meat products has meant that family owned companies such as OBE Organic are very export-focused. “The Middle East probably represents the smallest market but with the greatest potential,” says Wray, whose father David Brook is OBE Group’s chairman.
This September, the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC), the body that represents livestock processors and independent retailers, launched the Australian Livestock Processing Industry Animal Welfare Certification System (AAWCS). This means that participating companies and livestock processors will agree to third-party audited certification to demonstrate compliance with the processing industry’s best practice animal welfare standards. This is one of the many regulations that reassure the consumer that the product is good and ethically produced. Already, Ferguson says that export-oriented abattoirs employ trained Muslim slaughterers and ensure that the products are certified by a regional organisation.
David Contreras, Executive Chef of the Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort and Spa, where 90 per cent of lamb, 70 per cent of beef and 30 per cent of seafood come from Australia, tells GN Focus that the reason lies in the export centricity of the industry. “Internal regulations in Australia are very strict in grading meat. They need to have high standards. The volume of exports is so big that it needs to meet all market specifications — in case of a problem they would not be able to channel it to the internal market,” he says, contrasting it to his native Argentina, which has the highest per capita consumption of meat and eats most of what it produces.
Food safety
Tagging cattle with RIFD is another Australian first. Although Australia enjoys the natural advantage of being an island to keep its cattle safe from outbreaks of any disease, this technology makes it even safer. The cows are tagged at birth and it stays in place through any stock movement, including when they move farms, are slaughtered or when meat is packaged and exported. “We pioneered the system. We started it about seven years ago. This means that if we have any issues around food safety and animal health and we can isolate the problem quickly,” explains Ferguson.
Savvy farmers can also use the system to produce better quality products. “The tag has all the information on it including weight gain and performance. From a production perspective, it means that a farmer can work out the genetics to understand which bull breeds cattle that are producing the best meat,” says Ferguson.
Experts agree that it is impossible to look at a cow and predict that its meat would be fantastic, but with RIFD many variables can be controlled. “We aim for a consistently tender product,” he says.
The process also allows consumers to stay informed. Supermarket chain Spinneys in the UAE, for instance, sources all its Australian beef and lamb from the same sources. Hugh Archibald, Category Manager — Meat and Fish, Fine Fare Food, tells GN Focus, “We source all our Australian beef from the Standbroke family farm. All animals are tagged at birth with a unique number. The processing facility will have a record of the animals that passed through it and from which farms they originated. When the animals are processed this number is recorded and forms the barcode for each carton, identifying where the animal was reared and where it was processed.”
Most reared animals from Australia are fed on grass and that too on gourmet varieties such as saltbush and peppergrass, which grow freely, instead of being fed by the lot. “In lambs, I would say total grass-fed production is 100 per cent. For 20 per cent beef we finish on grain for particular market requirements. This means we feed them on high protein grain for between 60 and 120 days,” says Ferguson.
Marbling meat
Chefs set great store by what the cow ate. “Grain-fed meat will have much more marbling, which comes from the fat between the fibres of the muscles. The content of marbling makes it juicier. This internal fat acts like butter and melts so when you taste the meat it gives the sensation of juiciness. The flavour is different when it is grass-fed. While preferences vary, I find it tastier,” says Contreras, who says quality and grading can be checked visually. “Grading is done through visual checks of both the colour of the fat and that of the meat. When we get a piece of meat, we let it breathe. We cut and observe the marbling. With this we know if it is a good cut for grilling before we do cooking trials to confirm. The main thing that people judge when eating is flavour, tenderness and juiciness,” he adds.
