Kristine and Kerry Jonsson from Jervoise Organic Meats have been Australian Certified Organic (ACO) graziers in the Tully region for the past five years, creating an organic success story despite location setbacks.

The mother and daughter team took on traditionally male orientated roles to expand their operations to include the only ACO abattoir in FNQ, allowing them to pursue new markets this year.

"I'm now a qualified butcher, and we’ve both become accredited meat inspectors," daughter Kristine said.

She says the move was necessary to ensure Jervoise Organic Meats could retain its certified organic status.

Most abattoirs licensed to process organic meat are located much further south, with the next closest abattoir for certified organic beef producers in Central Qld at Thomas Borthwick & Sons in Mackay.

"The transport costs were restrictive to organic producers like ourselves - so we decided to take the organic meat supply chain into our own hands," Kristine said.

"We wanted to ensure organic cattle producers in areas in the far north would have somewhere available to them to process certified organic meat products ready for market."

Kristine says the venture is paying off. For the first time in 2009, organic meat products from Jervoise Organic Meats will be seen down south.

"We've combined forces with Mungalli Creek bio-dynamic Dairy (from South Atherton Tablelands)," she said.

"Jervoise Organic Meats will now be found in the same outlets which sell Mungalli Creek Dairy products, and distributed nationally by hundreds of retailers and stockists.

"After years of setting up our operations to a level we are happy with, it’s incredibly exciting."

Jervoise Organic Meat is sourced from the Jonsson’s property near Greenvale, 256 kilometres from Atherton, where they run 7000 head of certified organic cattle.

Kristine says the business will now be able to assist anyone interested in organic meat production in the far north.