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Australian lamb in spotlight in India

02 Jul 2013

Australian lamb was the centrepiece of a recent four-city promotion in India which focused on broadening the premium meat’s appeal among India’s growing middle class.

The Australian Lamb Culinary Experience promotion was held at Hyatt Hotels in Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai.

The event featured a series of roundtables for food journalists and critics. The promotion centred on tasting Australian lamb from Mulwarra Export Pty, paired with Australia’s iconic Penfolds wine. Also as part of the event, executive chefs from leading hotel groups viewed cooking demonstrations by Mulwarra Corporate Chef Mike Tafe, whose preparations included braised shanks, crumbed cutlets and a succulent barbecued leg of lamb.

Premium Australian lamb exporters are working on aligning their product with the tastes of the growing middle class in India and elsewhere in Asia. Rising levels of affluence in much of the region is expected to lead consumers to allocate increased purchasing power to higher quality food, including imports.

India has recently opened its market to Australian lamb, declaring chilled and frozen Australian lamb quota-free provided it meets requisite safety standards. Opening the door to this new market opportunity, a series of events was organised by The Australian Trade Commission (Austrade), to showcase Australian lamb in partnership with the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Mulwarra Export, Meat & Livestock Australia and Treasury Wine Estates Australia.

Australia’s high-quality food production is seen as a catalyst for transforming opportunities in the Asian Century into rewarding jobs for Australian farmers and other aspects of agribusiness.

The Australian Government’s latest data showed the nation’s red meat exports in the month of May reached a record high volume of 103,200 tonnes, largely on the back of robust demand from China.