Mountain River in Mexican specialty store

You may remember our August story about journalist Lynda Gray and her visit to the USA. Well, we’re proud to share that her D’Artganan Report has now been published in Country Wide Magazine. The United States is the largest single customer for New Zealand venison with the export value increasing from $34.8 million to $81.9m over the three years to September 2018. But who’s buying it and how is it being used? Lynda Gray caught up with D’Artagnan, a New Jersey-based distributor, to find out. You can download the full article PDF here:

Kiwi Week was an NZTE event showcasing New Zealand food, wine, and culture across 6 Chinese cities. From the 1st to the 17th of November, 70 kiwi food and beverage brands shared the best New Zealand has to offer through a variety of events designed to give guests an authentic kiwi experience. Mountain River was involved through a number of long-term clients who use our venison on their menus year-round. These chefs enjoy working with Mountain River because of the consistent high quality and positive feedback from their Chinese patrons. For the duration of the event people looking for a kiwi culinary experience were encouraged to eat their way around China at the numerous restaurants boasting everything from traditional Chinese food prepared with New Zealand exports, to quintessentially kiwi meals. One of these restaurants was Commune Social in Shanghai, with Chef Sergio showcasing a special blend of traditional Chinese and fresh New Zealand flavours. The dish, presented at Kiwi Week, was grilled venison ribs with a pear walnut puree and roasted and pickled pears. The ribs are marinated in over 15 different spices for a day, then slow cooked overnight and finished on charcoal for a wonderful smoky flavour. Other restaurants that served Mountain River include Bird, El Willy, JW Marriot, M on the Bund, Sheraton Jiading, and Westin Bund. Mountain River is proud to represent the best of New Zealand venison. Here are the dishes from each of the restaurants:

There was a recent promotion of Mountain River product at the Glacier Hotel in Grindelwald, a village in Switzerland. This was organised by Jacques Beyeler of our import partner, CASIC. A number of Swiss chefs were offered up various samples of venison to try and to ultimately promote Mountain River as their new venison partner of choice. Jacques says that the promotion was very positive. They also appreciated the short and efficient time taken to do the promotion during the lunch and dinner rounds. During the promotion, the chefs tasted the petit tender as carpaccio just with salt directly from the cutting board, also the petit tender as tatiki, try-tip, and short-ribs round of knuckle. Shannon gave a lot of background information around the farming practices, cutting, sustainability and also had discussions concerning the co2 emissions - which is very important to the Swiss chefs. Overall it was a successful promotion and we’re looking forward to seeing the uptake of Mountain River Venison in Grindelwald and beyond!