A NEW line of frozen dumplings featuring Australian beef and lamb is set to be launched in China.

The new product line is challenging other proteins traditionally used in the popular Chinese cuisine staple, opening up new opportunities for red meat, Meat & Livestock Australia said.

The dumplings marketed under the Crazy Dragon brand are the result of a collaborative project between MLA Donor Company (MDC) and My Crazy Auntie’s Food, a 100 percent Australian-owned and operated company based in Melbourne.

Crazy Dragon’s traditional Asian style dumplings and buns feature across eight product lines sold in around 2500 supermarkets in Australia. However, they did not contain red meat before the collaboration with MDC.

MLA said support from MDC helped Crazy Dragon explore high-value red meat growth opportunities in China, with insights and data from MLA key to Crazy Dragon developing its strategy.

MDC high value food frontiers manager, Michael Lee, said research undertaken through the partnership revealed valuable insights around food safety and quality concerns in China, and the growth of the frozen food sector, particularly the entertainment and snacking category.

“The project showed a clear growth opportunity for frozen food products that can demonstrate quality and superior safety and provenance,” Mr Lee said.

“The research involved in the project – which did not utilise any producer levies – will ultimately provide a new model for the Australian red meat industry to access the China market.

“The partnership has helped Crazy Dragon understand the opportunity for value-added beef and lamb products in China, explore disruptive business models, identify the right distribution and processing partners, as well as develop a unique point of difference for their product.”

Dumplings will leverage Aussie beef and lamb’s ‘clean green’ image

Crazy Dragon director, Juy Hepner, said the dumplings being produced for the China market used traditional Chinese recipes with Australian beef and lamb.

“Leveraging Australian red meat’s reputation of clean, green and safe, Crazy Dragon’s product promotion strategy will focus on its unique point of difference – the provenance story behind the beef and lamb,” Mr Hepner said.

“To ensure consumer confidence, the packaging incorporates a QR code linking to a custom-made video that tells the story of the producer and farm behind the key ingredient to the Chinese consumer.

“This encourages consumers to trust the authenticity of the meat content of the dumplings and makes it difficult for a competitor to replicate the product in China.”

For more information about MDC, visit https://www.mla.com.au/about-mla/what-we-do/mla-donor-company/

For more information about MDC’s collaboration with Crazy Dragon, a video case study is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gT6L48MkgA

Source: MLA.