Northland butchers scoop sausage awards as steak prices bite

The team at Coopers Beach Butchery were the only Northland butchers to take out an overall category prize at this year's Dunninghams Great NZ Sausage Competition.

Hand-crafted sausages are smoking past pricey steak as the barbecue go-to this summer – and Northland’s butchers are producing some of the best in the business.

The Northern Advocate recently highlighted Omak Meats’ silver medal in the pork category of the 2025 Dunningham’s Great New Zealand Sausage Competition, but has since caught wind that several other Northland butchers also earned top honours.

Mangawhai Meat Shop – also known as Klink’s Family Deli – earned two golds for its Free-range Pork and Fennel and Bolognese with Parmesan sausages, and a silver for its Chicken Carbonara.

The wins bring the shop’s overall medal tally to 23, including a previous Supreme Award, over the 13 years it’s been entering the national competition.

Owner Dan Klink said he was proud that a regional shop with a staff of only five could do so well in a competition that also drew entries from the country’s biggest players.

“With over 800 entries from over 110 stores around New Zealand, it’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the rest, but my team and I keep focusing on quality and innovation.”

He said sausages were fast becoming the new barbecue staple as meat prices soar. The butchers agreed that beef and lamb prices had increased at least 30% in the past year alone.

“People are looking for value, and sausages offer that. They’re more affordable than steak, but when they’re handcrafted like ours, they’re still packed with flavour and quality.”

Mangawhai Meat Shop aka Klinks Family Deli' won three medals - golds for their Bolognese with Parmesan and Free Range Pork with Fennel sausages and a silver for their Chicken Carbonara sausage.

Klink said there might even be a special Christmas snag in the works, possibly incorporating a cranberry and bacon stuffing that the store also sells.

Coopers Beach Butchery was the only overall Category Champions in Northland, winning the highest accolade in the pork section – the same category in which Omak Meats won silver.

Coopers Beach butcher Gavin Cameron said it was his first time entering the competition since taking ownership of the shop five years ago.

However, his winning Blackrock Pork Sausage - named after his previous Auckland business - was the same recipe for which he’d won the Supreme Award back in 2007.

“It’s a nod to where we came from and what we’ve built since,” Cameron said.

“We’re proud of what we do, and it’s great to see Northland butchers getting the recognition they deserve.”

Cameron said the value of a local butcher went far beyond the impersonal experiences of supermarket shopping or a meal kit designed by someone else.

“We talk to our customers, we know what they like, and we can help them make the most of what they’re buying,” he said.

Butchers could help customers plan a whole meal, still offered cuts supermarkets had long since dropped, and could custom-make products to order.

This year was the toughest economically for the industry and for customers, Cameron said.

A good sausage was like having a good steak, and at just over $20 kg, the price of two was usually between $5 to $6 - much more affordable than a piece of steak, Cameron said.

“And, if the sausage is an award-winning one, handcrafted, you’re going to really taste the difference between it and a massively processed one," he said.

Websters Family Butchery, Dargaville, offers an ever-changing array of Gourmet sausages weekly and recently won a bronze medal for its roast lamb and caramelised onion variety.

Cameron also tied for a bronze medal with Webster Family Butchery in Dargaville, both being recognised for their Roast Lamb and Caramelised Onion recipe.

The Dargaville business’s working-owner Kyle Webster, said sausage sales had surged since he reopened the butcher shop about four years ago.

“Our sausage sales have increased, probably 50% since we started here, because they’re still affordable when steak and lamb are so expensive.”

Webster said he was developing a Wild West Kumara sausage – a mix of beef, spices and kumara – which sells out weekly.

While it wasn’t a placegetter in this year’s competition, Webster believed he was on to a future winner.

“The problem is we’re so busy here making sausages, we don’t get enough time to actually, you know, tweak and test and add – but I’m going to make time next year," he said.

Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast.