WHAT started as a modest continental smallgoods business in Melbourne's outer suburbs 42 years ago is now Australia's much-acclaimed third-biggest pigmeat product manufacturer.
Bertocchi Smallgoods has just claimed the coveted title for the best nationally available product judged in this year's Australian Ham Awards - a neat follow-up to a similar gong received for its bacon.
In June Bertocchi won the Australian Pork Limited (APL) award for Australia's best nationally-distributed San Marino free-range bacon for a new line it developed for Coles.
The company has also just collected three smallgoods gold medals, numerous silver and bronze medals and a championship title (for the bacon) at the recent Sydney Royal Fine Food Show.
In a market flooded with pigmeat imports from North America and Denmark and now dominated by foreign-owned smallgoods processors, Bertocchi is the largest Australian-owned business in the sector and a keen supporter of Australian-grown product.
Although locally produced pigmeat can cost about 30 per cent more to use than imported product, Bertocchi's marketing and merchandise manager Tony Rappone said customers were willing to support ham and bacon products they knew were Australian.
He said the San Marino bacon line developed for Coles was released because the company believed a premium-quality local product was sorely missing from supermarket shelves.
"We're very conscious of our discerning customer base and we put a lot of effort into the hand crafting processes we use to produce a premium product," Mr Rappone said.
"We're very confident you can taste the difference.
"It's also fantastic to see the supporting work done by Australian Pork Limited with consumers and the food industry to promote awareness of the Australian product."
This week's APL national ham award winner is a natural hickory wood-smoked product sold through Coles, Woolworths and a big network of independent retailers.
Tasmanian Ash is also used to smoke some lines.
Bertocchi Smallgoods was established in 1972 by the late Modesto Bertocchi whose product focus was directed towards satisfying Melbourne's ever-increasing demand for European delicacies.
He migrated to Australia from Genoa in Italy in 1948.
Sons John and Andrew, both trained smallgoods makers, are now joint executive chairmen of the company which employs up to 600 staff at its Thomastown plant.
The boned-out meat cuts which are processed into bacon ham and air-dried smallgoods are sourced from nearby wholesalers V and V Meats which has contracts with piggeries in eastern Australia.
Andrew Marshall
National agribusiness writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media.
National agribusiness writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media.
