Driving Triple-Bottom-Line Value: Networks and Impacts in South Africa's Emerging Game Meat Industry

The current game meat industry value chain analysis focuses primarily on individual firm analysis, production costs and mapping of illegal and legal game meat trade routes. Although there is an attempt to demonstrate the sector's potential contribution to conservation, food security, and livelihood improvement, it remains unclear how the industry collectively creates value in a sustainable and equitable manner, and to whom it is created, especially given historical and contemporary inequalities in land ownership in South Africa. 

This article examines how the game meat industry's processes, practices, and actors link and/or interact to deliver the industry's unique value proposition, and how the bundle of benefits is distributed. A systematic review of the literature and empirical evidence was conducted to identify value creation and the intricate networks of business activities within the game meat value chains. 

Findings reveal complex, interdependent networks spanning the value chains, with the industry's value better understood through social, environmental, and economic perspectives. Demographically skewed social and economic value distribution of the industry was observed, mimicking the past historical land ownership patterns. These results demystify game meat value creation processes and highlight business opportunities for full streamlined participation in the game meat sector.