Artisan Category: 2019 Winner Poaka Coppa - 60g Platter Pack
Poaka New Zealand, winner of the Artisan Award was given the title in 2019 for their speciality hand-crafted pork coppa 60g platter pack product.
Poaka, a true paddock to plate operation, may be small in scale but is big in flavour, complemented with a strong ethical and sustainable practice.
Make no mistake, these are no ordinary pigs! Josh Hill, owner and operator of Poaka, breeds free-range heritage pigs and finishes them off on a diet of chestnuts and acorns, which results in higher inter-muscular fat content - what their customers refer to as the “melt in your mouth” experience.
Josh admits, what they do is not rocket science - small European artisans have been curing meats from time immemorial but it’s that depth of knowledge, history, and passion that delivers a special food moment. Learning how to achieve that, in an environment where those traditions don’t exist has been a journey.
“Entering the New Zealand Food Awards was one of the best things we've done. Creating a quality entry forced us to focus on some ‘big picture’ issues that artisans can often overlook as you ‘sweat the small stuff’. Achieving a win in our category was immediately recognised by both consumers and our sales partners and gave us brand recognition that has supported our business growth. We’re always grateful to the New Zealand Food Awards and Cuisine Magazine.”
Entry:
1. Product Name
Poaka Coppa – 60gm Platter Pack
2. Product Description
A cut from the top of an acorn and chestnut finished heritage breed pigs shoulder, our tender Coppa is then rubbed in our own blend of organic spices before it is hung to cure and mature for up to 5 months. When cut, its beautifully marbled slices are as good to look at as to taste. We describe it as the “3M”…Melt in your Mouth Moments!
Innovation
3. Where did the idea for this product come from?
As a treasured cured meat offering in Italy and Spain, Poaka NZ has worked to replicate and improve on this time honored classic salumi cut. Our heritage bred free range, nut finished pigs lend themselves to delivering a traditional raw material with higher inter-muscular fat content, and fat that is higher in poly and monounsaturated fats, resulting in a melt in your mouth cured meat experience. So, to be fair, as the old saying goes, "...imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...". This really wasn't our idea - but making it in a way that has been generally abandoned as a result of both habitat loss and industrial farming needs makes it one of a small class of products made this way through the entire supply chain.
4. How did you determine the product originality?
To the best of our knowledge, we are the only New Zealand producer, recreating tree nut finished pork as done in Spain and Italy. Even there, "bellota" finished animals make up only a tiny percentage of total production in these countries. Tree nut finished animals must be, by definition, "outdoor grazing pigs” so the entire animal husbandry regime is completely different from commercial, indoor raised animals that make up the vast bulk of both domestic and imported pork. But we're told that tasting is believing, and the acorn/chestnut finished Coppa is in a league of its own.
5. Did you consider any new technology to your company in the development of this product?
We have access to our own 25-acre Chestnut orchard, and an increasing farm-based acorn harvest. However, to acorn finish pigs all year round, we have had to increase our acorn collection dramatically. This year we have imported custom acorn collectors and partnered with the Christchurch City Council to "harvest" acorns within their Park precincts. This is allowing for a substantial increase in our acorn resource as well as minimising the food source for vermin (rats in particular). We will continue to work with the CCC to optimise the use of this currently wasted but excellent resource that will assist us in reaching our farming sustainability targets.
6. What were some of the challenges in developing this product and how did you overcome them?
Managing the chestnut resource.
Procuring an appropriate volume of acorns.
Curing and slowly air maturing large, whole muscle cuts from a large animal is a challenge. (Our animals are up to 50% larger than the size commercial breeds are harvested at.)
Traditional artisan style whole muscle curing is an ancient art, much of which has been lost in the move to higher volume, lower cost base farming and food processing. Josh had to travel to Spain to learn some basic techniques that could not be acquired locally.
7. In your food technologists (or similar) words, what was the proudest moment in the products journey?
Whether you’re making self-driving cars, helicopters, fine wine, or cured meats, your users expect the same experience every time. In a business like ours (much like wild ferment wines) we allow a number of natural processes to occur, in pursuit of the ultimate best product. Working out how to harmonise our “food processing” techniques to meet New Zealand’s stringent food safety requirements, while managing the magic that results from careful nurture of the natural cycle of the microbiome that is critical to production of the finest cured meats has been a long journey. In October 2019 when we were called to the stage at the New Zealand Food Awards, we were completely gobsmacked. To see the work of a long journey recognised by industry gurus was, and is, something we still savour and focus on respecting with each batch each week.
Sustainability
8. Describe how environmental outcomes have been maximised across the entire life cycle of the product and your company processes for achieving these outcomes.
Sustainability is at the forefront of everything we do at Poaka. We farm pigs, that due to their breed and the organic way we farm, require no synthetic treatments, antibiotics or growth promotants.
We have low stocking rates to minimise the impact of the animals on the land. All additional feed we purchase in comes from the local farming community, all occurring within a 10km radius. Our largest "off farm" input is barley we source from our next-door neighbour. As our business grows and our importance to his farming system increases, we have the opportunity to work with him to move to an organic barley product. This combined with our fully organic chestnuts and acorns would provide the basis for us to seek organic certification in the future. All of this leads to a very small environmental footprint for the main ingredient used in our products.
To offset the small amount of greenhouse gasses produced as a result of our farming, manufacturing and distribution, we have been planting thousands of trees every year on the farm. These trees are now absorbing significant amounts of carbon, and we are in the process of independently verifying that our farm absorbs more carbon than it produces.
9. Provide a specific example of environmental sustainability initiatives related to the product you have entered
Go to any farm in NZ and observe, and you will see a complex business in its own right. Working to balance animal health, product quality, water management, pest control, and local compliance issues make for a demanding base load of work. One of the big challenges is weed and grass control in non-core production areas. Herbicides are a standard control measure. Three years ago, we decided to stop using glyphosate in our Chestnut orchard. This required the introduction of a low input alternative. We now use a small flock of Pitt Island sheep for grass management in areas where we traditionally sprayed. This has resulted in healthier trees, under which the pigs graze, and has removed this herbicide from our farm management system.
10. Describe how your company consciously addresses social sustainability across the entire life cycle of its products and your company processes for achieving these outcomes.
We are a small business working in a rural area. Our staff have a number of challenges that those in the rural and farming sector will appreciate. Our factory team need extra flexibility for longer distance childcare. Our farm team have their own stock and irrigation work that can require timely attention. Our goal has been to develop a work/away from work balance that meets Poaka’s needs, while allowing them the freedom and flexibility to achieve their personal goals in both family and off farm work. This requires compromise from everyone but supports long term relationships.
Excellence
11. Briefly outline your product development process.
Creating a premium quality coppa, comparable to the best available globally, required the development of both a small/medium size herd of unique, heritage breed pigs, and a feed finishing regime similar to what is used in the bellota and Castanea finished pigs of Spain and Italy.
Acorns are full of antioxidants and oleic acid, as are chestnuts. Oleic acid is a principal constituent found in olive oil. Because the pig does not convert the fat, the oleic fatty acid component increases, and the meat is higher in monounsaturated fat - the “good” fat that we should all have in our diets. So that’s the science behind the acorn-fattened pigs of Spain being nicknamed an “olive tree on four legs.”
Similarly, finishing pigs on Chestnuts and Acorns results in the meat containing much higher levels of monounsaturated fatty acids. These characteristics of tree nut finished pigs make them ideal for traditional long-term curing and drying.
12. How did you determine the product’s likely success in the market?
Significant quantities of coppa are imported into New Zealand each year from the European Union. Our belief is that if we can provide an equivalent or even better offering, produced using sustainably farmed pork and organic ingredients, then we can compete effectively as an import replacement.
13. Demonstrate the product’s success with sales and distribution information
We now supply our Coppa to a range of New Zealand's premium restaurants, wineries, and specialty Grocer partners. These include:
Black Estate and Pegasus Bay (both previous winners of Cuisine Magazine restaurant awards)
Amisfield Winery
Barrys Bay Traditional Cheeses
Culprit
Farro Fresh
Giesen Wines
The Grange (North Shore)
Highwater Eatery
Jacks Point Restaurant
Kika (Wanaka)
Moore Wilson
Sabato Fine Foods
SkyCity
Venues Otautahi
Vetro Mediterranean Foods
A small group of New World Supermarket partners
