- Primal cuts, by the kilo
- Save up to 5% a kilo on a whole box
- Collect free from our cold room
- Primal cuts, by the kilo
- Save up to 5% a kilo on a whole box
- Collect free from our cold room
- Primal cuts, by the kilo
- Save up to 5% a kilo on a whole box
- Collect free from our cold room
- Primal cuts, by the kilo
- Save up to 5% a kilo on a whole box
- Collect free from our cold room
- Primal cuts, by the kilo
- Save up to 5% a kilo on a whole box
- Collect free from our cold room
- Primal cuts, by the kilo
- Save up to 5% a kilo on a whole box
- Collect free from our cold room
- Primal cuts, by the kilo
- Save up to 5% a kilo on a whole box
- Collect free from our cold room
The person choosing the beef breeds it for a living
Laine Thomson is a hands-on fullblood Wagyu cattleman. He manages a 1,200 breeder herd in Emerald, Central Highlands, where every mating, every genetics call and every decision through backgrounding and feedlot finishing is his.
He has spent his career producing marbling. He knows exactly what a grade is worth, and he picked our supplier on it.
Beef Cartel is what happened when enough people who had seen that work started asking how they could get beef like it.
How we choose what to bring in
Marbling is what Laine selects for in the herd, and it is what he selects for here. Every cut comes in four marble score grades, from MB 4-5 to MB 9+. The grade you choose is the grade we order for you.
The same judgement that goes into the herd is the judgement that picks the beef, pointed at what eats well.
Why we bring it in whole
Restaurants buy beef by the case, whole cuts at a time. That is the case size we buy at, so that is how we bring it in. Half striploins. Rib caps. Point end briskets. Every box is a whole carton of them, vacuum sealed and never portioned.
Buying the primal whole is what makes the price work, and it hands you the decisions a butcher would otherwise make: the thickness of your steaks, which end stays a roast, what goes to mince.
Why the cycle runs once a month
We open the catalogue for a window each month. Every box reserved in that window goes to our supplier as a single consolidated order, and that is what puts these cuts at this price.
The monthly cycle is also what keeps the chain short. Every box that travels is reserved before it leaves.
Fifty per cent holds your cut for the cycle. You pay the balance on our invoice, at or before collection, at the same rate per kilo, against the weight of what you collect. A box carries the abattoir's own figure printed on the outside. A single bag comes out of its carton here still sealed in its vacuum bag, so we weigh that on our own scales and you can watch. You pay for what you actually get.
Why Emerald
Emerald is where Laine is, where the herd is, and where the people who asked the first question live. Beef Cartel was built for them, and the shape of it follows from that: one cold room in town, one cycle a month, one whole cut at a time.
Collect from our cold room in Emerald. Everything is held at temperature until you collect, and we email you the day your box is ready.
