Long Tin, Macao Cured Meat Expert Highly Acclaimed Throughout Guangdong

Roast and cured meats are an indispensable ingredient in the menu of every authentic Cantonese restaurant. A cured meat producer from Macao has enjoyed a wide reputation throughout Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, where it is acclaimed as “an expert of cured meat”, and its meat products are highly popular among all types of customers.

Long Tin Roast and Preserves Limited (Long Tin) has been based in Macao for over half a century since its establishment by Mok Kwei Bor near the Red Market in Avenida de Horta e Costa in 1964. Starting from the wholesale and retail of fresh pork, the company progressively expanded to include a cured meat shop and a local-style café, so Long Tin currently operates a total of three outlets. The company has been supplying fresh pork, roast and cured meats to many local restaurants and hotels since the early 1990s, and can produce up to 2-3 tonnes per day during peak seasons.

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Cured sausages

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Alan Mok, the company’s second-generation heir

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Old photo of the store

(photo courtesy of the enterprise)

The Pride and “Made-in-Macao” Practice of a Cured Meat Expert

The production of preserved sausages involves a range of complicated processes. As a fresh pork wholesaler, Long Tin ensures the quality of ingredients at source by making preserved sausages with fresh pork meat; the company also pays close attention to the intricacies of its technique, from the ratio of fat and lean meat, seasoning, puncturing of sausage casings, charcoal temperature, to humidity for drying, which are all interrelated.

“We are virtually the only brand featuring roast meat and fresh duck liver sausages in Guangdong province”, said Alan Mok, the second-generation heir to the family business, who is confident about the company’s determination and experience in producing roast meat and fresh duck liver sausages. The persistence of adhering to meticulous techniques has not only earnt Long Tin its province-wide fame, but also a place in the field of cured meat production. Based on traditional processes, the company has also developed new recipes by taking market preferences into consideration. “We have been constantly studying new recipes and have recently developed our house-style barbeque pork belly. We have even filmed a short video to explain to our customers how to prepare the dish, and the response has been quite good”.

Long Tin established its factory in Macao in order to uphold the practice of making all its products locally. The factory is ISO 2000 certified, and Long Tin is proactively regulating its corporate governance and production flow so as to strive to achieve more international quality and management certifications.

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Roast ducks

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Cured pork belly

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Blending and mixing

(photo courtesy of the enterprise)

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Puncturing

(photo courtesy of the enterprise)

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Factory interior

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Cooling

(photo courtesy of the enterprise)

Gaining New Momentum through Online Promotion

In Mok’s view, Long Tin is already a household brand name in the Macao market. However, Long Tin’s next challenge in expanding its market is how to draw the attention of more customers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and especially how to raise brand awareness with the younger generation. The company therefore opened its WeChat official account in 2021, which not only allows customers to order meals and buy roast and cured meat online, but also to view the information and promotional videos of the company’s new recipes, thereby retaining their loyalty with a wealth of culinary content. Moreover, to revamp the brand image, the company has also instigated a brand packaging design contest, in the hope of injecting new vitality into the long-established brand through the original new packaging designed by people from the cultural and creative sectors.

Long Tin has always participated in MICE events organised by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), as Mok believes that these events will help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to expand their markets. In 2020, as recommended by IPIM’s Macao Ideas, Long Tin livestreamed its products during the three expos* and subsequently received enquiries about product details from many Mainland buyers, which has given the company a strong impression of the power of new media in the Mainland. “Online marketing has become the mainstream nowadays, but SMEs may not have a good understanding of the new marketing channels in the Mainland. We hope that in the future, with IPIM’s assistance, we can further develop our e-commerce business and better integrate into the Greater Bay Area market”.

*Note: The three concurrent expos: the 25th Macao International Trade & Investment Fair (MIF), Macao Franchise Expo 2020 (2020 MFE) and 2020 Portuguese Speaking Countries Products and Services Exhibition (Macao) (2020 PLPEX).