Demand for exotic meat soars with foodies’ culinary desires
Once a week Peter Sanagan brings a whole wild boar carcass to his Toronto butcher shop. He divvies it up into chops and other cuts, selling it to adventurous eaters who wander into the Kensington Market store.
While more familiar meats like beef and pork account for up to 90 per cent of sales at Sanagan’s Meat Locker, the remainder comes from people seeking socalled exotic meats like wild boar. Game birds are popular, too.
“When in season, we’ll have things ... like pheasants and partridges and squabs, wild turkey,” Sanagan says.
Though exotic meat consumption is not well tracked, demand for it appears to be rising and some industry insiders and watchers say that’s likely to continue as foodie culture grows.
In Canada, consumption of less traditional meats like horse, venison, camel, rabbit and game grew an average of 10.6 per cent a year between 2010 and 2015, according to estimates from market research firm Euromonitor International.
Fine-dining restaurants are the main drivers of these types of meats’ surge in popularity, according to Michael von Massow, an assistant professor at the University of Guelph’s department of food, agricultural and resource economics.
Diners are seeking a culinary experience they can’t get at home, he says. That means the nice pasta dishes that impressed a decade ago are out, thanks to the Food Network churning out home cooks.
“Restaurants are pushing the envelope to try and give us an experience,” says von Massow.