Craig Munro of Munro's Quality Meats Wilberforce named first master butcher in NSW

Mr Munro, who runs the family butchery at the Wilberfoce Shopping Centre, had an action-packed night at the AMIC awards last week, where he was honoured also for producing the second-best traditional beef sausage in the state.

“It was a really good night!” Mr Munro said of AMIC’s NSW Sausage King and Smallgoods award night at the Novotel in Olympic Park.

The AMIC Master Butcher of Australia is a lifetime achievement and as such is presented only once to the successful recipient.

Mr Munro said the criteria was “not just about your knowledge or your skills, but training your apprentices and staff, being innovative in the industry and active in the community”.

“We’d really love to start pushing the meat industry [as an attractive vocation] and start bringing a lot more young people through our doors - bringing in as many apprentices as we can and teaching the trade to as many people as we can,” Mr Munro said.

“That’s what we’re all about, trying to train the next generation of butchers coming through.”

He said bringing in fresh young faces was a way to keep the industry alive in the Hawkesbury, and he also hoped to expand his business.

“We’ve always strived to be our best for our customers and our community, so we will maintain that and hopefully bring a lot more staff through to expand the store,” he said.

“At the moment we’ve got quite a good crew of older guys ranging from 40 to 70, and all the apprentices we have had here recently we’ve trained to the point where they’ve opened their own shops and we’re quite proud to see our apprentices doing well for themselves, so now we’re looking for that next generation.”

Mr Munro said despite being named the state’s first Master Butcher, winning second place for his traditional beef sausage was “quite a surprise”.

“It’s the first time we’ve competed at a state level so it’s good to be recognised at this level,” he said.

“There’s no real secret [to making an award-winning beef sausage] but you’ve got to have quality beef to start with.”

Mr Munro buys his cattle live off farms and sale yards out west around the Cowra area.

Munro’s Quality Meats was also honoured recently as the meat supplier for Crosdales BBQ which won best new business at the Hawkesbury Business Awards for 2018.