The Future of Pork

From chops, ribs and tenderloins to bacon, ham, sausages and assorted charcuterie options, leading suppliers in the pork category have a lot to offer the market in 2023. While offering variety is important to help increase basket size for grocery retailer partners, pork suppliers are going a step further to research and build exclusive programs that not only provide premium quality meats but also appeal to consumers’ growing tendency to shop conscientiously, exercising their values for supporting domestic farmers and animal welfare with their pocketbooks.

Online meat company Good Ranchers, which has been in business since 2018 starting with pop up shops at retail before going fully online, this year launched its first primary pork offering, said Chief Operating Officer Jermain Gil. “We’ve done a holiday ham in the past but at the end of March we’ll be launching our very first primary pork offering so we’re extremely excited about it,” he said.

Part of the excitement is due to the company’s securing partnerships with domestic farms who will follow raising protocols to reduce the concern of trichinosis, also called trichinellosis according to the CDC, caused by consuming raw or undercooked meats. “We’re using one of the USDA-verified farms that were really excited about the quality,” Gil said. “It’s off the charts. It gives the ability to cook the pork like you would cook a steak, so more medium, medium rare, which makes a huge difference in the taste. We have a mix. We’re doing the bone-in and boneless center pork chops.”

Gil explained the pork program, “We were looking at the pork offering a little bit different that our beef. Our beef is all center of the plate. With our pork, we’re looking at it more like an ingredients offering. Here’s some Italian sausage to make a spaghetti or something else. Here’s smoked bratwurst to go alongside your grilled chicken breast. And Perry’s restaurant is big in Texas. We’re also doing a steakhouse style pork chop which is a larger thick cut pork chop.”

Good Ranchers’ pork program comes at an opportune time as Gil said he fore- sees supply issues with beef this year. “With the fear of inflation, tight budgets, less going out to eat, pork is considered a cheaper protein so that’s one of the reasons we’re trying to offer pork is to give them this little bit of a cheaper protein,” he said. “But also, during Covid, we saw that consumers really learned how to make restaurant type meals at home since restaurants were closed. Part of that is quality proteins and pork offerings in restaurants are big so with our steakhouse style pork chop that’s a direct response to those thick cut porkchops you get at a steakhouse. The trends we’re seeing is 1) they’re looking for a cheaper protein but 2) they’re also looking for restaurant style cuts and the selections that we made for our pork box is tailored for a consumer that is looking for a slightly better deal, but also looking for quality product they can also serve their family.”

Meanwhile, Niman Ranch, known for adhering to its four pillars of supporting small family farmers, humane animal care, sustainable agriculture and great tasting meats and which first became known to consumers through its appearances on restaurant menus, is growing its overall pork portfolio as well with the debut of its Iberian Duroc pork program this year.

“This is the first time in history that Niman Ranch has launched a breed-specific pork program in our 40-year history,” said Kay Cornelius, Niman Ranch’s VP of Retail Sales. “We’ve always focused on heritage breeds at Niman Ranch because they’re adaptable to our outdoor raising systems and we work with our small family farmers here in the US. However, we started work on this project about five years ago seeking out what will bring consumers to Niman Ranch for the next 10 years and we searched the world over for these genetics that would elevate the Niman Ranch pork eating experience, which is already elevated, to a whole new level but with the pork breeds suitable for our family farmers to raise in outdoor raising conditions that would meet all of our humane animal care criteria, that wouldn’t have to be raised in confinement like other breed-specific pork programs are. Ours are pasture-raised Iberian Duroc, it’s the best of the best from a meat quality and we are launching it with retailers right now. It’s totally different from the Berkshire and the Kurobata and other brands that you hear out in the pork world. And we are the exclusive owner of these genetics. It’s elevated taste. Consumers want to have pork chops and pork roast with great taste and they can find it at Niman Ranch, and they specifically can find it with this newly launched Iberian pork program that we have. It’s chops, it’s roasts, it’s ribs. It’s all of the fresh meats, and then we’re coming out with charcuterie made with the Iberian legs; this is one-of-a-kind and it’s something that we can do at scale for our partner retailers.”

There is also an expansion of existing pork lines, she said.

“We have some of the best sellers according to SPINS data in the sausage category with our sweet Italian or hot Italian and apple gouda sausage but consumers always variety and so we have launched a new smoked bratwurst and a Bavarian style bratwurst,” she said. “Both are in the bratwurst category, but our shoppers can now choose between the two and really find something delightful in the category, something different than their main space smoked sausage. Innovation doesn’t just end with a fresh pork chop.”

Though product offerings are diverse Niman Ranch has through its history ensured it supported its partner small family farmers by committing to purchasing the whole animal, even in challenging times.

“There’s a lot of pork brands out there that I call pieces and parts companies,” Cornelius said. “They buy the pieces and they put them together into a package. We buy that whole pig—we commit to that farmer. We don’t just buy pieces and parts that have certain value attributes. We define the value attributes and ask those farmers to raise to those standards. And we buy the whole animal, and we commit to that farmer. And I think that’s part of our trust and integrity on the pork side is we’ve done that now for 40 years.”