“If you saw a ‘Karoo Lamb’ certification sticker or badge on lamb chops, shoulder or shanks in a supermarket fridge, what would you presume it to mean? That the meat comes from a lamb raised on a farm in the Karoo, right? And has therefore lived on a diet of ‘Karoobossies’, which makes it taste just like, well, Karoo lamb? Right? Or would you be better off buying C-grade mutton?”
Tony Jackman in The Daily Maverick, 22 March 2019 | Read Tony Jackman‘s article in the Daily Maverick here
“Certification is the only way to ‘police’ Karoo lamb. Through the certification mark, the identity and authenticity is verified. Without certification it would not be possible for Karoo lamb to have international protection. So be thankful for the progress that the Karoo Development Foundation has made for the protection of South Africa’s traditional food heritage names.”
Sara Erasmus and Johann Kirsten in The Daily Maverick, 26 April 2019 | Read Sara Erasmus and Johann Kirsten‘s reply here
“In principle it is a tool to set apart a very specific product and to reap its value fully requires producers to use it and to shape it to fit its intended purpose to achieve the desired outcomes. Indifference to such efforts to set apart a product and production process like for Certified Karoo Meat of Origin allows the marketing of unique product to revert back to the commodity norm that most producers seek to escape.”
Read Dr Danie Jordaan‘s reply “The Karoo Lamb enigma” here