Jervoise Organic Meats is eyeing market domination after expanding operations to include the only Australian Certified Organic (ACO) abattoir in Far North Queensland.
Mother and daughter team, Kristine and Kerry Jonsson, have been ACO graziers in the Tully region for the past five-years.
Kristine says it was a natural development to become organic suppliers.
“The transport costs were restrictive to organic producers like ourselves - so we decided to take the organic meat supply chain into our own hands,” Kristine says.
The next closest abattoir for ACO beef producers in central Queensland is Thomas Borthwick & Sons in Mackay.
“We wanted to ensure organic cattle producers in areas in the far north would have somewhere available to them to process certified organic meat products ready for market,” she says.
Kristine has recently become a qualified butcher, and both are now accredited meat inspectors.
The venture appears to be paying off, as Jervoise’s organic meat products are appearing down south for the first time this year.
“We’ve combined forces with Mungalli Creek bio-dynamic Dairy (from South Atherton Tablelands),” Kristine says.
“Jervoise Organic Meats will now be found in the same outlets which sell Mungalli Creek Dairy products, and distributed nationally by hundreds of retailers and stockists,” she says.
Jervoise’s meat is sourced from the Jonsson’s property near Greenvale (256 kilometres from Atherton), where they run 7,000 head of certified organic cattle.
The company supplies everything from no-nitrate corn beef, to preservative and gluten-free sausages.
Following the expansion, it can now ensure the local Cairns, Atherton and Townsville areas are kept well supplied with high quality organic meat.
“Our abattoir will take orders of any size from people around the region - with an emphasis on those that are organic or biodynamic,” she says.
“Ultimately, we would like to supply around 20 head of prime certified cattle per week to markets down south, 50-weeks a year, while still servicing the local Cairns and Townsville regions.”
Biological Farmers Australia (BFA) Director and Managing Director of Kialla Pure Foods, Quentin Kennedy, says Jervoise’s operations are part of a gradually maturing market for organic meat.
“There are limitations to organic meat production in Queensland, but these are being overcome with time,” Kennedy says.
“Freight costs have always been an issue, with some producers having problems finishing enough cattle to the right specification to fill trucks for abattoirs some distance away,” he says.
“But growers are finding ways around the issue – from joining together to fill freight consignments, to finishing pasture fed cattle on organic grain to meet the specifications of processors."
“There’s now tighter control over the final product, and the quality of organic meat available to the buyer is high.”