“Instead of bringing the animal to the abattoir we’re bring the abattoir to the animal.” This is how co-founder and CEO, Chris Balazs, explains his company Provenir to Food & Drink Business.
As a farmer for almost two decades, Balazs had concerns about the stress his animals went through when they were heading to the abattoir. “Quite simply it’s an abattoir that resides in a semi-trailer. It’s a mobile process unit that goes to the farm," he says.
Provenir's vertically integrated, on-farm processing technology is designed to improve animal welfare, progress sustainable farming practices, and guarantee full traceability, provenance and excellent meat quality.
“We went with an WA engineering company through tender for the fitout but a lot of the process itself is the same as any other abattoir. The unique value proposition is that we do it on the farm so there is minimal stress on the animal and therefore a better quality of beef.
“There is a clever design but the process we have to go through has all the same steps and assurances for food safety, training, and everything else an abattoir has to meet. There’s no special dispensation,” Balazs says.
There are three people within the unit and one outside. And one inside always has to be a meat safety inspector, he says.
Provenir has been five years in the making. It raised more than $1 million in an equity raise, and a recent crowd funding campaign raised more than $27,000 in pre-sales in a week.
Balazs told F&DB a bold part of its business plan is to develop the terroir of beef. “People enjoy different types of wine, we can see a time not too far in the future where people will be knowing they’re eating hereford, or angus or short horn,” he says.
Capital raising
Now Provenir has the unit, the company is going through the final stages of fit-out and will go to licencing this month. “Then we’ll be into production under the Provenir brand.”
From there the company will go to a Series A capital raise, “We want multiple units across Australia and then look to co-branding to develop ethical ready-made meals with some meat cuts.”
Balazs says the product boxes will include a selection of cuts. “We’re looking at ethical consumption of meat - just eating certain cuts is not sustainable.”
