Wild venison is set to roll out across sports and entertainment venues across the UK.
Eat Wild, the UK’s wild meat marketing and development board, is delighted to see Levy start to use more wild venison on their menus across many of their sites from this Autumn.
Levy, hospitality partner to the UK’s most iconic sports and entertainment venues will be putting British wild venison burgers on menus at over 20 venues in UK and Ireland, including Premier League football club, Brentford FC, where their new wild venison burger launched at the start of the season.
The nationwide rollout also includes The Kia Oval, National Theatre, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC The O2, The NEC and Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
This development represents very positive news for deer stalkers, who are, at last, beginning to see an uplift in the prices received from game dealers for carcasses across the UK. After years of limited returns despite the increasing need to manage rising deer populations, improved values not only provide fairer recognition for their work but also help to support the long-term sustainability of deer management and the wider wild venison market.
Johnnie Furse, a spokesperson for the Countryside Alliance, said:
"This is fantastic news. Wild venison is healthy, sustainable and local, and its rollout to sports and entertainment venues across the UK is great news for those who work in deer management. We hope that Levy will be joined, not only by other private companies, but also by the public sector, in recognising the value of venison and bringing this great British produce to people across the UK."
Louisa Clutterbuck, CEO of Eat Wild said:
“This is highly significant news for the venison market. With the deer population continuing to increase at an exponential rate, Eat Wild is committed to developing new opportunities for all wild game. We are therefore delighted that Levy is leading the way by introducing wild venison to the menus across their venues. We hope this will have an impact across the supply chain.”
Jon Davies, CEO of Levy UK + Ireland, said:
“Championing wild venison is the next big move in our deep decarbonisation journey. Levy is committed to driving sustainability at scale and wild venison is the most sustainable and healthy red meat by miles. Getting more of this underrated, yet delicious meat into the food chain is a necessary, but also fantastic move for people and planet.”
Eat Wild first engaged with Levy in 2023, providing expertise on the role of wild meat through a series of meetings and an education day in Gloucestershire. As part of this, the Eat Wild team hosted Levy at Macaroni Farm to observe deer in their natural environment and to demonstrate the principles of a well-managed shoot, followed by a visit to game dealer Oakland Park. The Levy team was served pheasant sausages for breakfast and a delicious lunch of venison by the Oakland Park team.
For more information on Eat Wild and wild game recipes, visit: www.eatwild.co