Aussie red meat is the new secret ingredient for dumplings

Biting into a tasty dumpling is about to get even better with Aussie beef and lamb starring in a new Crazy Dragon dumpling range, aimed for the quality-conscious Chinese market.

This culinary dream was made a reality through the collaboration of The Meat and Livestock Australia Donor Company (MDA) and the My Crazy Auntie’s Food Asian cuisine brand, a 100 per cent 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 2,500 supermarkets in Australia. However, they did not contain red meat before the collaboration with MDC.

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.

“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,” Mr Hepner 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.

“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.

Crazy Dragon source their beef from Macka’s Australian Black Angus property in Salt Ash, just north of Newcastle.

Macka’s director, Robert Mackenzie said it is vital for the Chinese consumer to know exactly where the product has come from.

“We believe it’s important to partner with companies that share the same vision as Macka’s – to supply high quality product to the Chinese consumer,” Mr Mackenzie said.