000660 Kangaroo Meat Set for High Jump at Olympics

Sydney, Australia - The Sydney Olympics is feeding a culinary and commercial boom for Australia's most famous symbol, the kangaroo.

Gourmet kangaroo dishes will feature prominently on Sydney menus during the Olympics as restaurateurs vie for the palates of an estimated 110,000 international visitors.

While emu, crocodiles and Balmain bugs will also grace the plates of visitors hungry for something different at the Sydney Games, kangaroos still lead the pack. Months before the games begin in September, the Fine Dining Restaurant at the main press center on the Olympic site has arranged for ample supplies to satisfy the most voracious appetites for kangaroo.

An associated restaurant in central Sydney is already feeding an advance contingent of international media. “We specialize in indigenous foods, we've been doing native food now for 8-1/2 years,” Fine Dining manager Jennice Kersh said.

The number of international media visitors alone will be enough to keep kangaroos on the hop. The Tourism Commission expects about 17,000 members of the media, out of about 110,000 international visitors, to descend on Sydney during the Games.

Olympic visitors may be game enough to choose Emu Stir Fry or Crocodile from Fine Dining's Native Australian Degustation (taste testing) Menu, while for those partial to seafood Balmain Bug Won Ton may tantalize.

Kangaroo Tops Culinary List

But kangaroo -- grilled fillets, as a chicken substitute in Caesar salad, or almost any variation you can think of -- will be most in demand.

“The kangaroo is the most popular dish we have,” Kersh said, adding that international media representatives had already visited the restaurant unannounced to try native food in a spirit of embracing Australian culture.

“Always on top of the list for them is kangaroo because they're just mesmerized that you can have it,” she said.

Export figures show kangaroo meat has a big following overseas, but like a prophet rejected in his own country it has received a lukewarm welcome from Australians in the past.

Now this looks set to change. “Australians are beginning to eat it now more than they used to. It's very flavorsome and not too gamey,” Kersh said. “It's become acceptable.”

Australian kangaroo meat exports have been bounding ahead, almost doubling since 1996 to 4,000 tons in calendar 1999, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.

The game meat connoisseur market is mainly in Europe. But South Africa is the biggest single overseas market for kangaroo meat, importing 900 tons in the first nine months of the current financial year ending June 30.

Kangaroo meat is used in sausages there as well as in biltong, a dried meat like jerky, Craig Harwood of Overseas Game Meat Exports said. Kangaroo jerky and sausages are seen as a cheap, healthy food. “The price is very low, so it's quite attractive for people using it for meat processing.”

South Africa has traditionally imported beef and mutton to supplement its own game meat industry, but as towns grow the opportunities for hunting contract and game meat imports rise.

Shod With Kangaroos

Other kangaroo meat importers include the Netherlands, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. And last year's dioxin crisis over contaminated local animal feed in Belgium caused imports to that country to jump, exporters said.

Traditionally used as pet food in Australia, the last decade has seen a 50- fold increase in human consumption.

“It's a healthy product with less than 2% fat, very high in protein,” John Kelly of the Kangaroo Industry Association said. “It doesn't have any chemical treatment at all and it's starting to gain a following because of that.”

Even tiny South Pacific nations have discovered the kangaroo as a dish. Vanuatu, with only around 170,000 people, imported about 35 pounds last year, mainly to feed curiosity-seeking tourists who had taken part in “Australia Week” promotions run by local tourist groups, Harwood said.

The trade in kangaroo skins is also recovering from environmentally conscious fashion trends, Kelly said. Italy, China and Spain have shown special interest.

“The vast bulk of kangaroo skin is used for first-class sporting shoes,” Kelly said. “Goals that are kicked in world class soccer are kicked with kangaroo leather.”

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