Butcher's success relies on top producers

One of SA's most awarded butchers, Jason Mathie, Mathie's Meat Shoppe, Clare, has a strong tie to one of the state's longest-running pig studs.

Mallee Grove Pig Stud, owned by the Wandel family, has supplied Mathie's with four pigs each week for the past two years.

The 80-sow piggery, 16 kilometres south-west of Blyth, is run by Malcolm and Kaye Wandel and their daughter Cheryl.

Malcolm started the business in the early 1960s and this year, the family will enter their pigs into the Royal Adelaide Show for the 50th time.

Cheryl is one of the driving forces behind the pig section at the Royal Adelaide Show, having stewarded for many years.

Jason said working with local producers made good business sense.

"The Mallee Grove stud has supplied me with a good, consistent product," he said.

"It's great knowing they're only five minutes down the road, rather than having to source my product from inter-state."

Jason has a major focus on sourcing from local producers.

"I try to source as much of my lamb, beef and pork locally as I can," he said.

"I stock salt-bush hogget that comes not far away from Burra.

"I'd say 85 per cent of what I stock in the store is now locally sourced.

"As a rural butcher, we are lucky to have meat producers around the corner, or when it comes to pork, just down on the plains."

He said that because Clare was a major tourist town, visitors loved knowing they could stock up on local products.

Mathie's Meat Shoppe has won a swag of awards, including one in the recent Australian Pork Limited awards for the best long rasher bacon in SA – a back-to-back win.

It also won hat-trick National Sausage King titles and an induction into the National Sausage King Hall of Fame, the Westpac Small Business Award at the Advantage SA Regional Awards, and the SA Telstra People's Choice Awards.

"It's a testament to our hard-working team who process all of our meats on the premises," Jason said.

"In fact, our ovens are fired up five to six days of the week to ensure fresh batches of bacon and ham every day."

The New Zealand native finished his butchering apprenticeship at a shop in Rotorua, in the middle of the country's north island.

He moved to Australia and spent time at Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula and Port Lincoln where his wife Delvene worked as a teacher.

Jason has run Mathie's Meat for the past six years.

* Full report in Stock Journal, July 17, 2014 issue.