Ag-tech company Provenir has a collective concern for animal welfare, food provenance, highest quality produce, and nurturing a connection between farmers and consumers.
With this shared vision, the Provenir team has introduced a unique, on-farm mobile processing unit (MPU) that eliminates live transport prior to processing. Thus improving animal welfare and removing transport costs and stress on animals.
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Provenir CEO Chris Balazs considers on-farm processing to be the "holy grail" for farmers who want to produce the highest welfare meat.
"As a farmer myself, I hate loading my livestock onto the back of a truck. I work so hard to get them in top condition only to risk losing it all to a bad trip. I always knew there had to be a better way," he said.
At the 2017 SproutX accelerator ag-tech program, Provenir won both the Judges' and People's Choice Awards at a Shark Tank style pitch event in front of a crowd of over 250 investors, the press and agricultural industry representatives.
The MPU is designed to process both cattle and sheep. It is capable of processing 10-12 head of cattle a day, mostly made up of steers and heifers in the 450 kilogram plus range and cows up to 750kg.
Mr Balazs said the support from farmers had been overwhelming.
"So many farmers spend a significant amount of time, money and effort raising cattle in stress-free environments, so on-farm processing is an attractive proposition from a moral and financial perspective," he said.
Provenir is currently considering various leasing/franchising options to work with the rising number of farmer collectives/cooperatives that have expressed interest in working with Provenir to establish their own branded beef product.
"Our ultimate goal is to have multiple MPUs providing high welfare, on-farm processed meat to consumers, retailers and restaurants throughout Australia," Mr Balazs said.
This is on the back of a successful crowdfunding campaign launched recently, which exceeded its initial target of $33,000 with more than 160 supporters pledging to secure the pre-sale of Provenir's meat packs.
"Our campaign is quite different as it allows our supporters to secure the pre-purchase of the first ever produced Provenir Meat Packs as part of the crowdfunding pledge," Mr Balazs said.
"We have been really pleased with the response to the campaign because it demonstrates that our supporters, who have not only been vocal and numerous during development stages of our business, have actively thrown their support behind the campaign.
"But whilst the response has been pleasing it isn't surprising as we always knew that there was strong support from farmers wanting to connect to the consumer, and from customers wanting to know the provenance of their food, how it was produced, and whether it meets their personal values."
Pre-purchased meat packs will be available by the end of June.
Visit Provenir online to find out more.
