Tikitere farm beef was born from a desire to share the quality of our beef, create traceability, lower food miles, provide nourishment locally, and retain value within a very short supply chain.

The business proof-of-concept that tested the desire was a journey worth telling.

As a small farm with low volume requirements any of the main abattoirs were not an option.It took over two years of waiting for a mobile abattoir to be commissioned, but that didn’t happen, a victim of business start-up processes. Back at the drawingboard we discovered a micro abattoir within 100km of Tikitere Farm. Luck was in – they could take a small number of animals occasionally. Finally the supply chain was enabled:

Put animals on the truck at Tikitere Farm, within 100km they would be dropped at the abattoir farm for rest before being processed, hung, butchered and packed. I would drive to the butchery, collect the chilled packed beef and bring it back to the clean facility at the farm for labelling and distribution.

Easy.  Yes, that turned out to be the easy part – marketing turned out to be the difficulty. Because people who experienced the taste of Tikitere Farm Beef were over-joyed I thought the product would speak for itself.  It did for a few, but it didn’t speak loud enough to be heard over the convenience and habits of too-busy-lives.

While people told me they want to support locally farmed food, support natural farming seasons, eat with more conscience etc – the reality is convenience wins out. Slight variation in product also caused alarm, again consumers’ habitual buying couldn’t cope with anything slightly different. Using every last morsel became challenging due to inconsistent compliance requirements. Marketing Tikitere Farm Beef was challenging – not homekill, not a butcher, a farm selling fresh, butchered premium beef cuts, sometimes, and every other cut that comes from a whole carcass … 

Price points, personal delivery, locally farmed, MPI and council food regulation compliance, marketing from many different perspectives, etc, etc, were all carefully calculated and catered for. After 4 butchery runs over two years the proof-of-concept had been well tested.

The variety of pinch-points and increasing financial loss terminated the trial from progressing to the next level.

So, again my animals go on a truck to who-knows-where, treated en-mass with thousands of other animals in the mainstream system, with the quality of their life and meat being completely devoid of any dignity, value, or recognition.
My heart weeps again.         My bank balance recovers.         Status quo dominates as usual.

There’s nothing new in this process that many entrepreneurs before me haven’t experienced, and many determined people won’t try again.
For the good of planet and people, animals and local food security, I will keep pushing against status quo, keep pushing for better fresh food communities, keep pushing for the positive value of small farmers.