Victorian kangaroo meat on the menu in 2021

As beef prices surge to new highs, the state’s kangaroos are set to hit dinner plates as shooters get the green light to harvest their meat.

Top quality: Victorians will be able to enjoy eating locally grown roo meat in 2021.

Victorian kangaroo meat is set to be tossed on to barbecues in the new year as the Andrews government approves the Aussie icon being processed for human consumption.

Mangers of the Government’s Kangaroo Harvest Program sent an email to registered shooters today stating: “harvesting kangaroos for human consumption (in addition to pet food) and the interstate sales of harvested animals will be permitted under the program starting in January 2021”.

“The Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan 2021 to 2023 is now recognised under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as a Developmental Wildlife Trade Operation. This allows the international export of kangaroo products from this program.”

More than 40,000 Victorian kangaroos have already been harvested by professional shooters and processed into pet food this year.

But opening up the sector for human consumption clears the way for greater competition for what is regarded as one of the world’s healthiest lean meats.

The Weekly Times understands the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions is also set to lift the 2021 quota from the current 57,000 roos to 90,000, and comes at a time when processors are struggling to pay record prices for beef.

Pet food processors say they have already seen a big lift in demand for roo and deer meat in the face of beef shortages.

“We’ve gone from doing 1000 (roos) a week to about 4000 a week over the past three months,” Victorian Petfood Processors director Loc Rivett said. “A lot of people (processors) are converting over to roos.”

Without kangaroo and deer meat to process this year Mr Rivett said he would have been forced to lay of 50 of his 130 staff.

He said demand had also lifted in the wake of a COVID-19 driven surge in pet ownership.

“It really should boom next year,” Victorian Petfood Processors director Loc Rivett. “Kangaroo meat is the way of the future.”

As of December 1, Victoria’s 86 authorised harvesters had shot 39,484 roos, for which they receive about $1.30/kg dressed weight.

Bendigo kangaroo harvester Glenn Cole said the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning was “dragging the chain a bit” on announcing the 2021 quota, but the word was 90,000 tags would be issued in 2021.

Surveys of the Victorian kangaroo population were conducted in November.

Harvesting is tightly controlled by Victoria’s Game Management Authority, which issues tags that professional shooters must attach to each kangaroo carcass.