COASTAL butchers are struggling to keep up with customer demand for bones because of the "paleo factor".
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Clint Sharman, of Sharman's Butchery at Wivenhoe, has seen a marked increase over the last 12 months in the sale of bones in line with the rise in popularity of the paleo diet, which promotes eating bone broth for its purported health benefits.
"Because of paleo the last 12 months have been massive for selling bones," Mr Sharman said.
"A lot of people come in asking for bones and usually require grass-fed bones to make the broth from scratch at home.
"We can't get enough bones for selling over the counter . . ."
Paleo eating promotes a diet that avoids grains, legumes and some dairy products in favour of lean meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, fruit, non-starchy vegetables, nuts and seeds.
However, not everyone is a fan of paleo.
The chief executive of the Dietitians Association of Australia, Claire Hewat, said recently that there was no scientific evidence to support eating the paleo way and she was concerned that the paleo diet excluded whole food groups.
Meantime the paleo factor has helped to increase meat sales at a time of record high beef and lamb prices.
Livestock agents have reported record saleyard prices. Beef prices are really good this year.
Meat retailers, particularly small butchers, are not as happy as the beef producers are about the record prices as the butchers have been absorbing the price rise but say they will have to look to increase prices soon to stay viable.
Darren Smith, of Kings Feast Butchery at Ulverstone, has been a butcher for 32 years and has never seen anything like it before.
"Beef prices have gone through the roof and we've been riding those prices and you wonder how long they can keep going," Mr Smith said. "We'll have to start to increase some of the pricing although we don't want to."
Mr Smith said as far the diet goes he had not even heard of paleo a year ago but now sells lots of bones and is buying in bone broth to sell.
"People want the bags of bones and just today I've had people asking for the broth," he said.