Australia: International Porkfest takes off
Some of Australia’s best chefs together with major grocery retailers and more than 1200 butchers across the country have launched April’s International PorkFest to a hungry audience.
Consumers around the country are being encouraged to have a month-long love affair with pork by cooking up an international storm using different cuts and different cuisine styles.
From schnitzel, Bolognese, lasagne, Aussie BBQ cutlets and ribs, Asian pork belly, hock, won tons or char sui to Latin pulled pork, tonkatsu, roasts with crackling or suckling pig, the meal ideas are endless considering pork is the most widely consumed meat on the planet.
April is a time when a flush of pigs conceived in the cooler post summer months boom onto the market. Australian Pork Limited (APL) is hoping the inaugural International PorkFest will be a great opportunity for consumers to ‘pig out’ and for the nation’s pig farmers to make up some lost ground from the devastating effects of costly feed grain over the past years of drought, combined with the huge impost from losing 70 – 80 per cent of the bacon and ham market to subsidised imported pig meat that goes into local smallgoods production.
“The International Festival of Pork celebrates a seasonal abundance of pork,” says APL CEO Andrew Spencer. “There’s-plenty of it, it’s excellent quality and affordably priced. April will be like going on a world tour while staying in Australia and having your porcine passport stamped in the most delicious way.”
While Coles, Woolworths and local butchers showcase pork throughout the month, the PorkFest has also invaded the menus of hundreds clubs, pubs and restaurants across the country. Leading pub group ALH is right behind the PorkFest with 200 of its hotels expected to serve about 30,000 portions of pork cutlets by the end of April. While top restaurants such as Sydney’s Bentley Restaurant and Bar, Flying Fish and Pendolino; Melbourne’s Bluestone, Gingerboy and Pearl Restaurant and Bar; Brisbane’s Ecco, Lurleen’s, Azafran and Citron; Perth’s Jackson’s Restaurant, Must Wine Bar and Restaurant and Clarke’s of North Beach as well as Jolley’s Boathouse Restaurant, Urban Bistro and The Wine Underground in Adelaide – they are all flying the pink flag.
Source: Australian Pork (APL)
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
