Ostrich Meat Gaining Popularity

By Matthew Yi, Associated Press Writer

Ostrich meat, a red meat with less fat and cholesterol than chicken, yet more iron and protein than beef, is finding its way into restaurants and gourmet stores across the United States.

Ostriches, which breed at exponential rates and reach adulthood in a mere 14 months, were once grown for their meat exclusively in South Africa. They got their start in the United States in 1989, when ranchers were allowed to import 70 birds for commercial use. David Telling leaped at the chance to pay $55,000 for a single breeding pair. As each hen produced at least 40 chicks a year, he built his herd to 600 ostriches on three thriving ranches.

Three years ago, he and six other ostrich ranchers in California's San Joaquin Valley formed the Ostrich Meat Co., which operates one of six ostrich processing plants in the United States that have full-time Agriculture Department inspectors on-site. The company packages ostrich steaks, ground meat, patties and jerkies and sends them to stores and restaurants across the nation, from San Francisco to New York. The meat also is exported to Asian countries including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

"This still is a specialty niche product at this time. We do have some gourmet stores in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles that sell our meat, but we're primarily in the service industry like restaurants," Telling said.

Ostriches are native to South Africa, which owned the world market for more than 100 years by enforcing a ban on live bird exports. That monopoly allowed ranchers to command as much as $800 to $900 per slaughtered bird, including about $600 for the hide alone.

By the late 1980s, ranchers in other countries were able to import select numbers of adult birds, chicks and eggs, leading to a boom in the ostrich business. In the United States, 3,000 ranchers grow 300,000 ostriches in states such as Texas, California, Arizona, Indiana and Illinois, said Mac Young, executive director of the American Ostrich Association. American growers probably will slaughter up to 100,000 birds by the end of this year, Young said.

All those birds have driven down the price in years past, but California ranchers have enjoyed a better market than other states, since people here tend to be more health conscious, Telling said.

In Texas, for example, the bottom fell out of the ostrich and emu market by 1993, and emu chicks that once brought $3,000 could be bought for 15 cents. In parts of Texas farmers turned the huge birds loose to roam the countryside rather than continue providing food for the 100-lb. birds. Farmers went bankrupt.

"Two years ago, there was an oversupply of ostriches in the United States, and now the overproduction is tapering off," Telling said. "Within 18 months, the supply will level out, and I expect there's going to be a shortage. It'll probably happen quicker in California."

At the Ostrich Meat Co., each slaughtered bird sells for about $300, and each hide sells for $175 to $200, much more than cowhide, which goes for about $20 to $30, Telling said. Ostrich leather is used to make wallets, boots, purses, jackets and belts.

Telling would like to see ostriches become a part of Americans' daily diet. "It tastes like beef, but better," Telling said. "This is such a good product, our fear is that if we take it to the mass public right now, we'll kill it by not meeting demand."