Bison Expanding Markets

The Bison industry is a niche but growing industry. And 2020 will likely see the market grow even more.

The executive director of the National Bison Association Dave Carter was a member of an international trade delegation to Mexico hosted by Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

Carter says he thinks Bison is in a really good spot right now as consumers are looking more closely at meats and and how they are produced and their environmental impact. He said mother nature perfected the bison over thousands of years and calls bison nature’s original Plant based protein.

Carter says bison will always be a niche market. Beef does the best job of being beef and they’re okay with that. He says bison producers just want to connect with those consumers who want to eat red meat but appreciate certain attributes that bison provides.

Bison meat has less fat and cholesterol and more iron and vitamin B-12 than beef and chicken and more protein than beef, according to the National Bison Association.

The bison industry processes about 62,000 animals a year compared to about 125,000 animals every day for the beef industry. Bison does about $350 million in retail food sales annually.

The National Bison Association headquartered in Westminster Co.

Bison, the largest mammal in North America,The bison is the country’s national mammal. Former President Barack Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act in 2016 to make the huge, shaggy creature the official mammal.