BUFFALO MEAT BORAS - SERRES MEAT PRODUCTION UNIT - MEAT PROCESSING - MEAT FORMULATION

The Boras Company Today The company Z. Boras and Co. O.E. is a modern production, processing, standardization and packaging unit for both buffalo and other meats in Livadia Serres, on an area of 360 square meters.

Today, the main market for the company's products is Athens, followed by Thessaloniki.

The products are mainly available in delicatessens and high-end restaurants.

Our company participates every year in the gastronomy festival and in various food fairs.

Historical path of the business The business of Zelios Bora began to be active with the marketing of pork, mainly local meat, from a small livestock unit in Livadia Serres.

In 1987, in a butcher's shop of only 18 sq.m. small quantities of pork were traded from the privately owned 50-sow capacity unit which had an annual production of approximately 1,000 animals.

The livestock unit expanded at the same time to the verticalization of production and its products slowly began to establish themselves in the minds of the local residents.

Several years later, in 1993, Bora's butcher shop "moved" to another space of 60 sq.m., but in the same area, Seeing the progress of the work with increasing trends, the model of the local pork trade was doing well, winning consumers with a constant its quality, so the time had come to expand into beef.

The butcher's shop now also traded beef, from specific producers in the area, in order to maintain, for the most part, consistent quality.

There, in the mid-1990s, the company invests in the expansion of the butcher's facilities and acquires its own 180 sq. » the dioxin scandal is like a bombshell.

The situation caused by the food scandal pushed consumers to local meat, as foreign meat was no longer considered safe.

Until then, as Zelios Boras told Agrenda, consumers chose meat mainly based on the price, while the quality did not interest them so much. However, things changed drastically and consumers switched to local meats, which greatly benefited the business.

Beef consumption tripled in one year. It was at this time that the butcher shop owner thought of going one step further and trying his luck with Buffalo meat.

Mr. Zelios Boras is one of the first butchers who decided to offer buffalo meat in his shop. In 1999, when Zelios Boras in Livadia Serres, hung the sign in his butcher shop "buffalo meat for sale" most of the butchers in the area and his fellow villagers gasped. "Do you want to close the shop?", they told him.

Initially, in fact, things were not encouraging for this venture, as consumers did not prefer Buffalo meat, because it did not comply with basic hygiene and safety rules. To . to further improve the quality of the meat, the animals were taken out of the lake water shortly before slaughter. The first test resulted in a quality meat, but the doubt remained.

The need to find the right way to market the product was imperative. The solution came with a ready-made product, fresh meat was turned into crabmeat that was kept unchanged for a long time, the experiment was successful and the crabmeat began to gain "fans". At Agrotica 2004, another step was taken to consolidate the finished product.

Other fairs followed along the way, and the Serra product spread beyond the city's borders. Future Plans The company's plans include the production of new products, such as smoked buffalo meat, as well as expanding its sales network both in the domestic and international markets.