Fry me to the moon: Where to buy the best bacon in New Zealand
Sunday, 5 July 2026
The country’s best bacon and ham is not to be found in the chiller aisle of your local supermarket.
It’s in the scattering of small entrepreneurial butchers’ shops from Coopers Beach in the far reaches of Northland to the South Island port town of Lyttelton that the boundaries of bacon are being pushed.
It’s in these “us against the world” butcheries seeking to distinguish themselves where the best bacon and ham made using traditional methods are to be found.
Some of these small butcheries, an increasing number of which can dispatch their wares to homes through online shops, also take pork roads less travelled, like the Waiheke Butcher’s Green Bacon with floral gin and juniper notes, and Warkworth Butchery’s bacon candy (think bacon on a stick glazed with plum sauce).
Tuesday night this week saw the land’s master bacon-makers and ham-smokers gather in the Maritime Room at Auckland’s Maritime Museum for its annual awards night, the Bacon and Ham Awards.
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Reuben Sharples from the Aussie Butcher New Lynn can this year claim to own the home of the best bacon, having taken home eight awards, the most on the night.
That included the “Supreme” award for his Reuben’s Middle Free Range Bacon.
But there’s a necessary humility to victory.
The judges for the awards say the level of entries was so high, just a hair’s breadth of perfection separates gold winners from bronze, and that some years a bacon master can win big, and the next year find themselves falling fractionally short.
Sharples has sat in the judge’s seat before.
“It’s hard. You are splitting hairs,” he says.
But winning is nice, and Sharples has done a bit of it over the years, and now has to “rotate” certificates on the walls of his shop.
And it sends a message to customers that they really are right to think they are buying something a bit tasty.
“It rectifies for the customer that they are getting the best,” he says.
A butcher’s shop with Bacon and Ham Awards for its bacon, ham and sausages has proved it is a decent shop, he says.
“I’m never going to sell anything I wouldn’t take home and feed to my family,” he says.
Rob Lees, owner of the Warkworth Butchery, which has won multiple Bacon and Ham Awards over the years, says the development of super-fine, innovative products is a way for businesses to distinguish themselves, and win notice from the public.
“It’s us against the world,” he says.
He’s distinguished himself on the sausage front too, with multiple awards, and runs master classes for would-be sausage makers.
The rules for the awards require all products to be made of 100% New Zealand born and raised pork from farms accredited for animal welfare by the Pigcare scheme run by Pork NZ, which sponsors the awards.
That means mass-market products made at least in part from imported pork, which dominate the ham and bacon sold in supermarkets, are not welcome.
Shouldn’t award-winning bacon be available in supermarkets?
Easier said than done. Sharples says the cost of scaling production would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that’s just not practical.
The talk at the awards night was that the independent bacon masters would like something from Woolworths and Foodstuffs, and the Government: accurate labelling of bacon and pork products.
NZ Pork has campaigned for accurate labelling, but has not secured Government backing.
As a result, labelling on supermarket pork products remains vague, and in some pork producers’ opinions sometimes downright misleading.
It is not uncommon for product label small print to leave the reader uncertain as to where the pork in it comes from, which matters because New Zealand has some of the highest pig welfare standards in the world, but much imported bacon is produced in countries with lower standards, making them cheaper.
And that is part of the reason why New Zealand only has 65 pig farms left, and why Green MP Steve Abel has a private members’ bill which proposes to ban pork imports from countries where welfare standards are lower than in New Zealand.
One example of a Woolworth’s product label illustrates the point.
“Pork butchered in the following countries may have been used in the production of this product: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United States of America. These countries may not always reflect the countries the animal has been raised in,” it says.
Pork growers and butchers think the lack of action from successive governments on truthful labelling is the result of a fear that it would be seen by trading partners as a non-tariff barrier that prompts retaliatory action.
The supermarket duopoly of Woolworths (Woolworths, Fresh Choice and SuperValue) and Foodstuffs (New World, Pak'nSave, Four Square and Gilmours) were largely absent having closed their butchery counters, though NZ Pork points out that the fresh pork in the supermarket is all New Zealand-raised.
But there are still a couple of centres of bacon excellence in individual stores that have not retired their last real butchers, and still retain innovative butchery practices.
New World Broadway in Palmerston North carried off the silver award for its Maple Bacon, and bronze for its Sweet Chilli Chipotle Bacon.
And Woolworths got a bronze for its home-branded Free Farmed NZ Boneless Champagne Half Ham.
Where the best bacon is found
For a full, nationwide map of the Bacon and Ham Award winners visit Retail Meat’s Bacon and Ham Awards website. Here’s a selection of some of 2026’s big winners:
North Island
Coopers Beach Butchery: Gold for its Honey Cured & Manuka Smoked Sliced Ham, and Silver for its Maple Cured & Manuka Smoked Shoulder bacon.
Omak Meats, Whangārei: Six awards in 2026, including “Champion” awards for its double smoked speck, and peppered speck.
NZ Meat Depot: Bronze for its Himalayan Pink Salt Smoked Streaky Bacon.
New World Broadway, Palmerston North: Silver award for its Maple Bacon, and bronze for its Sweet Chilli Chipotle Bacon.
Cameron Harrison Butchery and Delicatessen, Wellington: Gold for its Manuka Smoked Streaky Bacon, Honey Cured Shoulder Bacon, and Honey Cured & Manuka Smoked Sliced Ham.
Wild Game, Hastings: Gold for its Wild Game's Pepper Flavoured Bacon and its Old School Middle Bacon. Bronze for its Wild Game's Ginger Flavoured Bacon.
Mount Butchery, Mount Maunganui: Champion Award for Dry Cure Streaky bacon.
The Waiheke Butcher, Waiheke: A Champion award for its Waiheke Preservative Free Dry Cured Bacon, and a gold for its Waiheke Green Bacon (with floral Gin & Juniper notes).
Aussie Butcher New Lynn, Auckland: Arguably New Zealand’s current home of bacon as winner of eight awards including the Supreme Award for the best bacon or pork product in the country for its Reuben's Middle Free Range Bacon.
Pokeno Bacon, Pokeno: Producer of the Champion Honey Cured, Manuka Smoked Shoulder Bacon.
South Island
Harris Farm Shop, Cheviot: Six awards, including the Champion award for the best Free Farmed Dry Cured Middle Bacon.
Peter Timbs Meats, St Albans, Christchurch: Four awards including a bronze for its Nitrate-free Bacon.
Butterfly & Scotch, Redcliffs, Christchurch: Champion award for best Bone-in Manuka Smoked Ham in the country.