Australian lamb making waves in American charcuterie market

Aussie Select Lamb Pastrami on shelf at Costco

Lamb pastrami featuring Australian lamb is being made available across 73 Costco stores across the Southeastern United States.

This comes following a project between Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and Aussie Select, a company specialising in hand-crafted, modern charcuterie products featuring premium Australian lamb.

The aim of the project was to develop and test a suite of Australian lamb products by Aussie Select to build on the ready to eat and deli meats trend to grow demand in value added Australian lamb in the United States of America.

MLA’s Group Manager - Science and Innovation, Michael Lee, said that American retailers had seen a 154% increase in weekly ready-to-eat or deli meat purchases, but that there were no lamb products on offer.

“Research indicated that US consumers spent $7.7 billion a year on deli meats, including ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat foods,” Mr Lee said.

“Turkey, pork, chicken and to a lesser extent beef dominate the deli. Yet, lamb, particularly lamb from Australia, is growing in popularity in the United States.”

“American consumers indicated pressures around cooking time and that they have little confidence in cooking lamb. As the number one provider of lamb to the US market, the Australian industry has a massive opportunity to break into this market as the first to market ready-to-eat lamb products.”

Despite challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Aussie Select developed four hand-crafted, modern charcuterie offerings. They included:

• Agave Rosemary Lamb
• Tikka Masala Lamb
• Lamb Pastrami
• Lamb Prime Rib

Chief Executive Officer of Aussie Select, Jaclyn Glatzer, said that after multiple rounds of research, Aussie Select met or exceeded market demands for taste, sustainability, innovation, and health & wellness.

“Based on the research, current tonnage projections to meet the demand for Aussie Select show a potential for 3,700,000+ pounds of exclusively Australian raw product over the next five years,” she said.

“We’re thrilled to see Aussie Lamb products rolled out throughout the Southeast (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Puerto Rico). The initial products in the Aussie Select line only scratch the surface; there is exciting growth opportunity for lamb in the ready-to-heat, ready-to-eat and snack-kit categories.”