Andrei Nitsenko had a problem: what to do with several tons of beef brisket produced on his family’s cattle ranches in Russia. Prime cuts like ribeyes and tenderloins sell like hot cakes in steak-crazed Russia.  But on a beef chart, brisket is located on the lower chest, where meat quality is considered inferior to cuts located higher up on the animal. Andrei needed to find a way to make brisket more valuable than just turning it into ground beef.

The Nitsenko family owns Zarechnoe, one of Russia’s pioneering cattle companies. It launched in 2008, two years ahead of the cattle bonanza that swept the country in 2010. That made the family among the first to be challenged with