|
|
 |
|
|
Meating Place: February 2006 by Anne Spiselman, contributing editor Berkshire pork has run hot and cold with American consumers over the years. Now, at last, it appears poised to conquer the white tablecloth set.Just when Americans have come to think of pork as "the other white meat," along comes Berkshire pork, the "the other red meat," according to producers and processors of the product.Also known as "kurobuta"-Japanese for "black hog"-this red and richly marbled pork frequently earns comparisons to Kobe beef and, like Kobe, is a longtime favorite of Japanese consumers and chefs. Now it's U.S. chefs, including Thomas Keller, Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse, who are talking up Berkshire. And restaurants, particularly "upscale ones, have begun to listen. "For more than two years, I went around knocking on restaurant doors;" recalls Kelly Biensen, CEO of State Center, Iowa-based Eden Natural. In those days, the late 1990s, Eden was lucky to ship out 15 hogs for processing every two weeks or so. Since then, Eden Natural has swelled into a consortium of some 20 producers working with 10 distributors to move 150 head to 160 head per week, a number Biensen expects will more than double in 2006. Eden isn't alone. Once the nation's largest supplier of Berkshire pork, it recently was surpassed by Berkridge Pork and Snake River Farms, a pair of vertically integrated processors. The Sioux City, Iowa-based Berkridge Pork is the marketing arm for a joint venture between Pro Pork, a production group working with farmers, and Sioux Preme, a harvester and fabricator that has operated in the niche pork sector for more than a decade. Berkridge Sales Director Troy Arends, director of sales and marketing, says the company sells 350 pigs a week, though an additional 250 to 300 will available by June and 250 more by November. "Our strengths are consistency of supply and our ability to quickly adapt to customer needs," he says. In addition to primals, Sioux Preme provides distributors and restaurants with a number of custom cuts ranging from French racks to single rib bellies, a favorite among Japanese. Kurobuta ham and Kurizo - meaning chorizo-are among the specialties of Boise, Idaho-based Snake River Farms, a division of Agri Beef Co. The family owned Snake River initially raised cattle for Kobe-or Waygu-beef, then later added processing and packing to its capabilities. Theiler says its success with Kobe prompted a co-op of 100 small Midwestern Berkshire pork producers to approach the company in hopes of improving their market access. "We buy the hogs for market price, plus a premium just before slaughter, then slaughter, market and sell them," he says. "We don't make money on the processing, but we do on selling to a distributor network. Prices are 30 to 100 percent higher than commodity pork, depending on the cut." Sales currently number 500 pigs per week, and Snake River markets the product as kurobuta in order to align it with its Kobe product. "Chefs tend to call it 'kurobuta,' perhaps because consumers don't like to think in terms of eating breeds," says Theiler, who also supplies the pork to Asian groceries. Retail, he believes, holds particular potential for ham and Kurizo. Nevertheless, many U.S. consumers have never heard of Berkshire pork. "But get it into their mouths, and they become totally hooked," says Mike Telford, marketing director for Lafayette, Ind.-based Berkshire Meats, a subsidiary of the American Berkshire Association. Telford says the breed repeatedly earns top marks for ultimate pH, total lipids, low cook loss, juiciness and tenderness in the National Barrow Show Sire Progeny Tests. The challenge, Telford says, is cultivating consumers who are unfamiliar with the product, ramping up production to meet growing demand for it, and ensuring that inferior product doesn't pass itself off as Berkshire." As recently as the late 1990s, the concern was whether a U.S. market evenly existed for the product. Reputedly discovered in England's shire of Berks, Berkshire hogs first made their way to United States in the early 19th century, where their fortunes waxed and waned over the years. By the 1990s, they were mostly waning, and the majority of American Berkshire was being exported to Japan. When Japan's economy went south, so, too, did its demand for the pork. Since then, building demand in the United States has rested on the ability of producers and processors to consistently deliver on the promise of a unique and superior product. The good new is that while Berkshire sells for a hefty premium - as much as $10 per pound - a National Pork Board study recently found that more than 20 percent of U.S. consumers will pay to pay 40 percent to 70 percent more for certified Berkshire pork raised without antibiotics, hormones and animal byproducts. But the big draw is flavor. Eden's herd was initially 75 percent Berkshire and 25 percent commodity, but the producer has since switched to 100 percent Berkshire in order to boost quality in the face of growing competition. It's a pricier proposition, since purebred Berkshires produce fewer pigs per litter, averaging 15 annually as compared to 21 to 22 for commodity pigs. Berkshires also gestate longer and require an additional month to feed out, factors that increase overall production costs by 30 percent to 40 percent. As a result, Biensen works with maternal genetic lines, using select genetics in two nucleus repopulation herds. "They produce about nine pigs per litter," he says. "While most Berkshires go to market at 250 to 260 pounds, our average live weight last year was 280 pounds. Our goal is larger-framed hogs weighing more than 300 pounds, which will provide us with larger muscles and, as a result, a higher percentage of lean cuts. We'll also obtain additional intramuscular fat, or marbling." The hogs are being used to multiply the rest of Eden's herds, which are fed a conventional diet of soy and cornmeal. Biensen says producers are asked not to use any rendered animal byproducts, hormones or antibiotics, at least not during the last 100 days. In order to offset higher production costs, Berkridge, which processes Pork Morceau, a bacon-wrapped select whole muscle resembling a medallion, is aggressively moving toward the value added sector. "Because Berkshires are fatter, more goes into the trim bucket. So our goal is to create as much value as possible with the remaining meat," Arends explains. Theiler agrees." We have to sell all cuts of the animal," he says. "Even if we sell each and every pork chop, everyone loses money if we can't find ways to market the rest of the animal". For some processors, that's a tall order. "Sometimes our ability to fulfill requests is limited by our capabilities in the processing plant," says John Paul Khoury, chef for Preferred Meats, Inc., an Oakland-based premium meat company. "A number of chefs want the belly skin-on but, fact is, many plants skin the pigs." By the same token, some of the chefs Khoury works with tell him they would love to buy certain cuts, but that diners simply won't eat them. "Our biggest sellers are the lo-bone rack and the boneless center-cut loin," he says, though Preferred also moves everything from individually cut chops to whole shoulders "Prices," he says, "depend on the degree of processing." Even with higher-end product, Khoury says consumers recognize that Berkshire is a high-quality product and are willing to pay for it. Along with tenderloin, the l0-bone rack is also the most popular cut sold by Cicero, Ill.-based Pasture to Plate Inc. Overall, Pasture's sales of Berkshire Pork have increased 20 percent to 30 percent in the last year alone,according to company President Nick Sahlas. In addition to growing interest in the product, he credits much of the growth to the new strip loin cut that he introduced. The product, he says, wholesales for $6 per pound to $7 per pound. In general, Pasture to Plate moves between 3,000 pounds and 5,000 pounds of Berkshire pork through the midwest every week, and believes more growth will result from greater use of underutilized carcass parts. "A lot of chefs are beginning to realize that, in addition to expensive cuts, the belly, cheeks, tongue and other carcass parts can be of tremendous value," says Sahlas. Case in point is the restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., which uses the whole hog from nose to tail. Even the ears, says chef and co-owner Dan Barber, go into a salad. Which ought to have the ears of at least some producers and processors perking up. |
