Is this the end of suckling pig on Melbourne restaurant menus?

Some of the city’s best restaurants are being forced to take suckling pigs off their menus due to supply crisis.

For over two decades the state’s main supplier of suckling piglets was Western District pig farmer Judy Croagh from Western Plains Pork. She supplied small pigs to top restaurants such as Flower Drum, Il Bacaro and La Luna who considered her product as the best in the nation.

Last month, Castle Estate (formerly Koallah Farm) abattoir near Camperdown stopped processing Croagh’s pigs. Owner Steven Castle was informed by the company that removes and processes his slaughter waste that it would no longer accept any pig DNA as it would affect their halal certification. Castle told Croagh it could no longer process any pigs.

It is one of Croagh’s earliest customers that has been impacted by this. Celebrity chef Adrian Richardson from La Luna Bistro met Croagh 25 years ago soon after he first opened his Carlton North restaurant.

Croagh originally found a specialty processor to handle her pigs weighing as little as seven kilograms. Over the decades, as small abattoirs have consolidated and others been bought out by foreign companies. “There are not a lot of options for abattoirs in Victoria,” says Croagh, who is presently without a processor.

“I don’t know what to do. You can get suckling pig from interstate but nowhere near as good as the ones from Western Plains Pork.”

Adrian Richardson, La Luna

One of those abattoirs to have sold to overseas investors is Hardwicks in Kyneton in Central Victoria. For generations this once family-owned business processed animals from many small and medium local farmers. In 2021, the abattoir was sold to Chinese owned Kilcoy Global Foods.

In July, the abattoir cancelled processing goats. This month it announced it would no longer process service kills for organic sheep. Beef farmers have reported that the abattoirs will no longer return hides – which for some small farmers is an important form of income.

In the past 18 months, poultry suppliers Milking Yard Farm in Central Victoria, Stokes River Poultry in Digby and Mirboo Pastured Poultry in South Gippsland have closed down citing lack of access to processors as a major cause.

Lizette Snaith from Warialda Belted Galloway Beef sells beef to Montalto in Red Hill and Bottega in the CBD. “We are a small producer and there are fewer and fewer abattoirs who want to take on small farmers, and it is not going to get any easier,” says Snaith. “We need more small abattoirs.”

Adrian Richardson says, “I don’t know what to do. You can get suckling pig from interstate but nowhere near as good as the ones from Western Plains Pork. They are completely free-range, tender, flavoursome and the skin so crisp.”

His customers book months in advance to secure a suckling pig and his Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Suckling Pig Feast sells 700 tickets in a matter of hours.

Jason Lui, General Manager of Flower Drum, is equally dismayed. “Suckling pig is an important dish. People book them way in advance, but the minimum is 48 hours. We dry the skin, we roast them until crisp before service and finish them off to order. We serve the skin first then carve the flesh at the table in Chinese pancake with hoisin. They are an essential part of Chinese New Year for many.”

“Finding another processor is near impossible,” says Croagh.

“There are processors interstate ... But there is no way I am trucking my pigs that far.”