There are some mean hombres in the beef jerky corral.
There’s the giant Jack Link’s brand, which does more than US$1 billion in annual sales. There’s Old Trapper, which enjoys a comfortable position in gas stations and convenience stores south of the border.
In Canada, Big Chief is available in most places where snacks are picked up.
These kinds of big guns weren’t enough to scare off Bonnie Getz of Moose Jaw, whose Cowboy’s Caviar has gone from being a small Saskatchewan brand to a Western Canada-wide meat treat in a decade.
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“The big guys dominate the market,” acknowledged Carson Van Otterloo, who travelled from Moose Jaw to Brandon to promote Cowboy’s Caviar at the Manitoba Ag Ex in late October.
“For the smaller guys coming in, you have to put a lot more focus on the quality of the product.”
The lines of jerky he was representing are known as “soft-chew,” which means they’re soft and chewy by jerky standards, and unlikely to tear your teeth from your skull as drier versions are wont to do.
The key to providing this consistency, Van Otterloo said, is processing the meat so it retains moisture.
The point of having a booth at a cattle show isn’t to sell a lot of jerky.
“It’s all about visibility,” said Van Otterloo.
Like many trade show booths, the Cowboy’s Caviar booth is designed to pull in show-goers for a chat and talk about the product. The enticement, of course, is little chunks of jerky but the purpose is to stamp the product’s name into visitors’ minds so they look for it at jerky pick-up points.
The company also provides the jerky for fundraisers and other bulkier sales.
Despite being a small name in the jerky marketplace, Cowboy’s Caviar seems to be doing pretty well.
The company is planning an expansion of its plant in Moose Jaw and working on moving its meat into the giant Ontario market.
“I’ve been able to watch it grow from 100 stores in Saskatchewan to over 1,000 in Western Canada,” said Van Otterloo.
