Poaka Unveils State-of-the-Art MPI Approved Micro Abattoir

07/08/2023

Poaka has officially opened its state-of-the-art Micro Abattoir. This innovative facility, recently approved by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), is set to revolutionize the way pork is processed on a small scale, ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare and product quality.

Poaka’s Micro Abattoir is a testament to our commitment to sustainability and ethical animal handling. This Micro Abattoir facility has been designed to cater to the growing demand for locally sourced, premium-quality meat products while maintaining the highest standards of animal welfare and levels of sustainability.

Unlike traditional large-scale abattoirs, the Poaka Micro Abattoir focuses on small-batch processing of our beautiful free range pigs. This approach allows for more personalized care of the animals, significantly lower stress and better quality control.

Poaka’s commitment to excellence has been recognized by the Ministry for Primary Industries, which recently granted its approval for operations. This endorsement highlights the facility’s adherence to the highest food safety and industry standards.

Our Micro Abattoir places a strong emphasis on traceability and provenance. Each animal can be traced back to the specific paddock where the animal was raised, ensuring and absolute guarantee of provenance. When you buy a product from Poaka you can be 100% confidant that the free range pork was grown on our farm, processed by us and used to produce our products. How many other producers can make that claim!

Poaka are now a truly full circle farm to table producer.

Country of Origin Labelling is finally here!

02/2022

Its taken a long time, but as of February 2022 a large number of products sold in New Zealand are now required to list where they (the main ingredient) come from. This is a huge win for the New Zealand Consumer and we applaud the New Zealand government for pushing this through! A large number of pork products are included in this labeling change which is fantastic for the New Zealand pork industry, as currently over 60% of the pork eaten in NZ is imported from a large number of overseas countries. Just about all of the countries the pork is imported from have a much lower animal welfare standard than New Zealand.

Until this law change, it was virtually impossible to tell where your pork your bacon was made from was raised. Now if you go into your local supermarket and pick up a packet of bacon you might be surprised to see where the pork is from!

Here at Poaka we are all about supporting local, sustainable farming, as we believe this is the best way forward for the environment and supporting local communities. Next time you are at the supermarket or wherever you buy your food, have a look at the label and if its not grown in New Zealand, have a think at how sustainable it is to be importing that product, maybe there is a good local alternative?

Free Range Leaf Lard Now Available

We have had a lot of requests for our free range pork leaf lard to be rendered down and sold in jars. Well we have done it! We now have our beautiful, free range, heritage breed leaf lard in glass jars ready to use.

Do you really know what you are eating and where it comes from?

A recent news article on RNZ , looked at the cost of meat in New Zealand. Lamb and Beef were priced well above inflation figures from several years ago, thanks to the high export prices being obtained currently. Pork on the other hand was priced far lower than the equitant cost currently, when inflation was factored in. Beef and lamb are now the most expensive meats in New Zealand, with chicken and pork being the cheapest. A generation ago, the reverse was true! This is because virtually all pork and chicken produced were free range, and pigs and chickens are very expensive to farm this way. Now virtually all chicken and pork are intensively farmed (industrially, including “free farmed”). Further, the flood of cheap imported pork into New Zealand has reduced prices further and put massive pressure on local farmers, with many exiting due to the persistent low prices and high regulatory requirements.

Virtually all of the commodity pork imported into New Zealand is from countries with large government subsides for pork farmers and is being sold well below the true cost of production to NZ. To add to this virtually all the pork imported into New Zealand is farmed in countries using practices, animal welfare and standards that are illegal in New Zealand and would result in prosecutions for local New Zealand pork farmers if they farmed the way imported pork is being farmed. These farming (industrial farming) practices allow overseas pork to be produced at a much lower cost, financially, use feed additives banned here (for good reason), environmentally and at the cost of animal welfare. Further, current labeling laws In New Zealand do not require producers to name the country the pork in their product is from, so you have know idea where the pork you are eating really comes from or what it has been feed, eastern Europe, Asia, who knows? Just because it says “Made In New Zealand” does not mean it is made with New Zealand pork, in fact the opposite is probably true!

Over 60% of the pork eaten in NZ imported from overseas, and percentage of processed goods such as bacon and sausages that are made from imported pork is over 80%! The majority of pork eaters in NZ are eating pork products that they have no idea where the pork comes from, how it was farmed, what kind of life the pigs had or what the pigs were fed! Crazy?!? Right?

In New Zealand less than 1% of all pork farmed here is truly free range, meaning the pigs spend their whole life outside in paddocks free to forage and roam. 99% of pigs farmed in New Zealand end up either in large barns with hundreds of other pigs or live their whole life in enclosed sheds/buildings for their entire life and never see the light of day. This is a much cheaper way to farm, and far more efficient as the pigs don’t have much space to move around and burn off valuable feed energy. These methods are required by local farmers to be at least somewhat competitive to imported pork!

So if you care about what pork you eat and how it was farmed, firstly only buy pork farmed in New Zealand. This way at least you know where it comes from and that it was farmed to a higher animal welfare standard than any imported pork. Secondly if you want true free range pork, know that less than 1% of free range pork is really farmed this way so be wary of claims on the package (“free farmed” pork is not free range! It is intensively farmed in large sheds and is a marketing term. Be especially wary from large produces as there is simply not the supply of true free range pork farmed in New Zealand to be supplied on a large scale. Virtually all free range pork products farmed in New Zealand will name the actual farm it is from as there are so few free range commercial pork farmers here in New Zealand, they could be counted on less fingers than you have! Always ask questions, and be informed as to what you are putting into your body.

Happy eating

Poaka wins the 2019 Cuisine Artisan Award!

Our free range, pasture raised, acorn and sweet chestnut, organically farmed Coppa was judged the best product out of a group of 19 amazing finalists at the 2019 Cuisine Artisan Award. Its a real Honour to be recognised for all the hard work we do to bring the best sustainably, organically, ethically farmed pork products to New Zealand.

Poaka features on iconic Country Calendar Show!

We had the opportunity to share the whole Poaka story on TVNZ’s Country Calendar show in July. If you haven’t already watched the show, you can watch the whole episode on youtube and see how we free range farm our heritage breed pigs and make our salumi and charcuterie products

Poaka named runner up in the 2018 Cuisine Artisan Awards!

We are absolutely thrilled to be named runner up in the 2018 Cuisine Artisan Award! It’s a huge recognition for all the hard work we put into our farm, animals and products. Thank you NZ food awards and Cuisine Magazine. You can read the story here

Country of origin food labeling bill passes third reading!

Poaka New Zealand Flag — Poaka Free Range Pork, born and farmed in Canterbury, New Zealand!

It’s a little known fact that over 85 percent of the pork used in bacon and ham sold in New Zealand comes from overseas countries, and 95 percent of that’s from countries with worse animal welfare standards than New Zealand! This new Country of origin food labeling allows the New Zealand consumer to know exactly where the pork used to make the bacon and ham really came from. Of course all our products use only pork bred and farmed in Canterbury, New Zealand by us!

Poaka features in Stuff

Stuff reporters came out to the Poaka farm to have a look at our free range heritage breed pigs and butchery. They published a really nice article with a great video on what we are doing which you can read about it here on the stuff website

Poaka Named as a Finalist in the 2018 New Zealand Food Awards!

Our whole and sliced Finocchiona salami is a finalist in the 2018 New Zealand Food Awards!