‘Boutique beef’ to get special treatment at Brawley plant

Eric Brandt deals in the world of “boutique beef,” niche markets of custom cuts, specialized handling processes and animals that are raised and fed in different, more eco-friendly ways.

His company, One World Beef of Buena Park, which he owns with his wife, Tiffani, has made its name selling and marketing specialty American beef brands to domestic and international customers, while also helping import high-quality beef like Japanese wagyu to a more discerning American palate.

“I’ve always envisioned the beef industry much like the wine industry of 20 or 30 years ago — I feel that in today’s world, consumers want to know where their beef comes from,” said Brandt, also a managing partner of the family-owned Brandt Beef, one of those niche-market specialty brands his One World Beef represents.

Now, with the announcement this week that National Beef is selling its state-of-the-art Brawley beef-processing facility to One World Beef, Eric and Tiffani plan to bring back some of the jobs lost last year when National Beef closed its doors and laid off 1,300 workers.

The couple will try to do this by turning a facility that was meant for mass-market beef processing into a “boutique beef” custom processor handling multiple niche brands.

“Our business model is very different, very unique,” Brandt said.

He added what One World Beef will undertake in Brawley has not been done in the United States before.

Eric Brandt says One World Beef’s business model will allow a dozen or more, for example, small-batch, artisanal, niche beef producers to be processed under one roof while keeping strict separation and custom-order cuts.

Take Brandt Beef, for instance. It’s a line of hormone-free, corn-fed beef produced by the Northend-based Brandt Co. cattle-ranging operation run by Eric’s father, Bill.

Brandt Beef customers are high-end restaurants and gourmet retailers, for the most part. And the processing of the product requires care and specific demands.

“I think chefs are asking for that,” he said. “I think we’re just scratching the surface of that market.”

It’s a small market now, for sure. Grass-fed beef, for instance, makes up just half percent of the retail beef sold in the United States, according to data from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

But the demand is rising, Brandt said, an idea seconded by experts in livestock markets.

“I think it’s a growing market and I think it’s growing in consumers; you see it everywhere,” said Dr. David Anderson, a professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University.

“We’ve got consumers who want organic, who want grass-fed and grass-finished beef,” he said.

The added rub, though, is there is a lack of meat packers taking on those niche markets, Anderson said.

“For organic, or natural beef, one of the big problems is: how do you get those animals processed and slaughtered?” he asked.

Brandt’s One World Beef might just be that solution. If all goes according to plan, he said, that solution could start by the end of the year.

“I’ve been blessed to see different processes in different countries,” he said, experiences that have clearly informed his decision to take on this unique segment of the beef industry.

“There are other producers like us,” Brandt said, switching between his Brandt Beef and One World Beef hats. “That’s who we hope to attract.”

This story originally appeared in the Imperial Valley Press, April 16, 2015.