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Organic butchery

Background

This farm produces beef, lamb, and poultry products, all to Soil Association organic standard, as well as a range of organic vegetables. However, as there is no organic symbol holding butchery in N. Ireland, the meat products have to be slaughtered off-farm by a contract butcher. This means that even if the meat was slaughtered in a symbol holding abattoir, because the butchery has no organic symbol, the meat would lose its’ organic status and therefore cannot be legally sold with the organic label.
Research was commissioned to look at the feasibility of opening a butchery, dedicated exclusively to the butchering of organic meats. The research considered two possibilities:
  • The possibility of opening a retail only butchery
  • The possibility of opening a combined retail outlet with the facility for contract butchering for other organic meat producers.
Other aspects considered were the location of any proposed development and the costs involved.

Questions asked

  • The promoters felt that the following information was required:
  • Was there sufficient retail demand to justify the capital expenditure?
  • Were people prepared to travel to an on farm shop to purchase their meat?
  • Would an organic butchery be in demand from other organic meat producers so that they could retail their own produce?
  • Have on farm butcheries in Great Britain succeeded, where the market is much more developed?
  • Are there any examples of ‘good’ practice, which could be learned from the GB examples?
  • What pitfalls are to be avoided?

How was the research carried out?

The research took two forms:
  • A Loughry College graduate carried out statistical market research on behalf of the promoters. This study was to ascertain market strategies for the organic butchery and concentrated on identifying public interest in organic products, identifying the most suitable method of service and to investigate influencing variables.
  • The promoters visited several organic butchers in GB, whose names were supplied by the Soil Association.

Conclusions

  • The organic butchers visited were both successful and fulfilling the needs of the people involved or were attaining to this.
  • The numbers of consumers wanting to purchase organic produce is increasing with a significant number prepared to travel to the place of production of their food.
  • There are a number of non-supermarket ways of selling organic meat such as:
  • Have someone else butcher and vacuum pack the meat and sell it at a farmers market.
  • Have someone else butcher and freeze the meat and sell it from your own farm shop.
  • Start a butchery in the cheapest location possible and deliver to your customers whether wholesale or retail.
  • Start a butchery close enough to a sufficient number of people who want to buy direct from the farm (provided the premises are close enough to significant centres of population).

Lessons learned from the study

For this type of diversification project it is vital to visit a significant number of similar projects, as no two businesses are identical. Whilst those visited were not operating from a small family farm, the breadth of experience gained was extremely valuable.

Important note

The information within these case studies is for general information only. It is not necessarily complete and is not intended to address all issues relating to the proposed diversification ideas. Market and circumstances may change substantially and thus this information should not be used directly within the development of other business cases for diversification without checking its validity at the present time and directly to your particular project and circumstances. Further research is recommended before embarking on any new enterprise.