RAY Borda says with every month that passes, the kangaroo industry is improving.
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Mr Borda is the managing director and founder of Macro Meats – Gourmet Game, a business which processes and distributes kangaroo meat.
“We supply all the supermarkets around Australia under the brand Macro Meats – Gourmet Game and we also have a very healthy export market, who can’t get enough of kangaroo because they are starting to learn the virtues of the meat,” he said.
Sixteen months ago they made the decision to only accept male kangaroos for processing – a decision which was criticised by many producers and harvesters.
Close to 750,000 male carcases have come through the premises since then, and as a result of the change, the industry is building up recognition for its focus on animal welfare.
“Every month that goes by is a month we see improvements – more consistency in the meat – the harvesters themselves even comment about how much better they feel and how it’s working for them,” he said.
“We’re going to get challenged all the time so we have to be three to four times as good as other industries.
“We’re continually upgrading our facilities, running training programs, and have our own tagging barcoding system to ensure traceability.”
Mr Borda said he was expecting to receive criticism when he spoke at the RSPCA world farm animal day symposium recently.
He said many people against the industry think animal welfare is the furthest thing from their minds, when it is actually a priority.
“I wanted to make it clear to people how far the industry has come and that animal welfare matters to us.
“Every country around the world, right at the top of their agenda is animal welfare.”
Mr Borda said people were researching kangaroo meat online and turning to the product.
“There’s a lot of people looking into it and finding more and more health reasons why to buy it.
“They say 60pc of people that were on a vegetarian diet that wanted to - or had to - return to a protein diet for health reasons turned to kangaroo.
“There’s a group out there called kangatarians and they are exactly that – they’re vegetarians that will only eat kangaroo.”
