Pig's gallbladder: the bits the Brits won't eat

“We needed quality – which we had – but more volume,” he says. “I visited meat factories and abattoirs around the country looking in the waste bin at what they were throwing away to see what possibilities were there – and I’m still doing that. We have just launched a new product in the Ivory Coast – pork tongue root.”

With 100pc of revenues coming from exports, Elmgrove Foods, which was founded in 2008, sells to food suppliers and retailers in countries such as Vietnam, Poland and the Caribbean.

Dobson’s African markets include South Africa, Angola, the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Liberia. The Far East accounts for 80pc of his revenues, 15pc come from Africa and the remainder from Europe and the Caribbean.

Geopolitical tensions can favourably impact the company, which is forecast to generate a turnover of £25m this year.

“Sanctions on Russian exports have meant a drop in the availability of pig’s heads into the European market – a gap that I am filling,” he says.

Elmgrove Foods, shortlisted for the PwC Private Business Awards 2014, to be decided next month, has more than doubled its sales in less than two years.

“We have worked hard at growing our supplier base and have over 50 now – we had one in 2008.”

The farmer has exported 69,500 tonnes of cuts such as bladder, hind feet, penis and heart (below), but none of them to the UK, where there is little demand, he says.

“Legislation is one of our biggest challenges,” says Dobson, who washes, packages and transports the products frozen. “We are banned in China but are working with the UK and Irish governments, and attending trade missions to open more doors. China would be our biggest market if it opens.”

He also sees Hong Kong as a growing market and a gateway into its vast neighbour.

“Culturally, these products were waste six years ago but now I’m told in some countries such as Africa our products could be the only meal a consumer eats a day.”

End users range from the poorer villagers to the emerging middle classes in Africa and the Far East.

Dobson, who spends his time in meat factories or flying to far-flung countries, hung up his bloody overalls and paid a visit to Buckingham Palace last year, having been awarded the prestigious Queens Award for Enterprise, International Trade 2013.

“We used that as promotional material in Hong Kong, playing to the global reputation Britain has for quality meat. “Although when we met Her Majesty she did say she was glad we didn’t bring any samples with us,” he confesses.

Britain’s more exotic exports are not restricted to what is slung on the factory floor. Norwich-based Hi Breeds sells surplus, fertilised eggs to Saudi Arabia.

It’s far more complex than just buying and selling eggs, the founder Nick Chandler says.

He has been sourcing high-quality produce from farms in Northern Ireland which he sends by air in temperature-controlled boxes. For 14 years he has been dispatching eggs to the Saudi capital of Riyadh. From there they are taken to a hatchery in the desert and then the chicks are distributed to farms and for pilgrimages.

Today, all Chandler’s sales are to the Arab kingdom. It’s a high-risk business, founded in 2008 and now co-run by his daughter, with tight profit margins and an even tighter schedule to get the eggs across the globe, especially when delivering to a hot country such as Saudi Arabia.

Customers rely on Hi Breeds to supply eggs that are disease free and of the highest genetic standard. “We ensure a very high level of bio-security,” Chandler says.

With such a delicate cargo, it is important to have the right procedures in place to make sure the product reaches the customer intact.

“We work very closely with Saudi Arabian airlines in order to ensure that the cargo handlers at Heathrow know what they’re handling when they come in,” he says.

The company which now turns over £20m a year, is looking to Africa as its next market place to ensure the supply of safe, healthy protein sources.

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