Arabic version: إيفا فالي ميتس تحتفي بعقد من لحوم أبقار الإقليم

According to ABC News, Northern Territory cattle producer Fiona McBean and her husband Peter Cogill have marked 10 years of operating their boutique abattoir, Eva Valley Meats. The couple bought Old Cameron Downs, 100 kilometres south of Darwin, after deciding there was demand in Darwin for locally produced beef with better taste.

Ms McBean said the business faced early challenges, including persuading customers that Top End cattle could produce quality meat. Eva Valley Meats processes cattle from the family’s mostly Senepol-Brahman-cross herd and buffalo from the region. She said demand rose quickly after the first animals were processed, with the business needing a full-time butcher within three months.

The abattoir now processes about 15 to 20 animals a week. That is far smaller than the nearby AACo facility, which had capacity to process 1,000 animals a day but was mothballed after three years. Ms McBean said Eva Valley Meats had lasted by matching supply to demand, while she and Mr Cogill said their focus was on improving rather than simply expanding.

The business also seeks to use carcasses from “nose to tail”. Apprentice butcher Rebecca Francis has started an offshoot skincare business using tallow harvested from beef carcasses for lip balms and other products. She said suet, the fat surrounding a beef animal’s kidney, could be used in skincare and cooking, although only a few kilograms are obtained from each animal.

Eva Valley Meats has helped increase the availability of locally produced and processed beef in the Territory, where cattle had primarily been bred for live export. Products from Rum Jungle abattoir are sold in some butcher shops, while Gunbalanya’s remote abattoir supplies beef and buffalo to customers in west Arnhem Land. A family linked to a boutique Katherine-region abattoir is also set to open a Darwin steakhouse serving local beef this month.