[imagesource:baymeatmarket]

The famous Karoo lamb tjoppie has finally been given the respect it deserves after the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development registered Karoo Lamb for protection under Geographical Indication status.

This means that only meat cuts from ‘young sheep produced under free-range conditions in the Karoo’ will be able to claim the name Karoo Lamb.

The registration will give Karoo Lamb the same protection as products like Champagne, which is produced in a specific geographical area. No more rocking up to a braai with tough old Dorper tjops and a bottle of J.C. Le Roux and then claiming you’re having a champagne braai.

According to Charles Erasmus, executive manager at the Karoo Lamb Consortium, the meat has “very specific aromatic and sensory attributes, which can be directly attributed to the herbaceous plants that grow naturally in the Karoo”. The Karoo Lamb Consortium is a non-profit organisation that has worked to collect empirical evidence and scientific confirmation of the link between the meat and the Karoo region.

As proud as a Karoo native like myself might be over this move, it does however mean that Karoo Lamb can now be marketed and sold at a premium compared to other lamb meat products.

The next step, according to Johann Kirsten, director of the Stellenbosch-based Bureau for Economic Research, was for South Africa’s government to submit the registration for protection in the European Union as well. This way, the humble Karoo Lamb can enjoy the same status as other protected brands for export purposes.

Large retailers will now hopefully stop selling chewy old ram meat under the Karoo Lamb name. Some of us were born amongst those very same Karoo bossies that give the meat its unique taste, so we know when we’re being sold a J.C. Le Roux at Veuve Clicquot prices.

We see you.

[source:freightnews]