Biltong
 
WASHINGTON – Family-owned Ayoba-Yo, a maker of charcuterie-style, air-dried beef snacks, is expanding its distribution to retailers in the Northeast by adding Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s Food Lovers Market as customers.

Ayoba-Yo is known for its family’s South African versions of beef jerky, known as biltong, and beef sticks, known as droewors. The products, which include Traditional Biltong, Spicy Biltong and grass-fed Droewors, will now be available at 18 Kings locations and six Balducci’s stores. The products are also available at 22 Whole Foods Market locations in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. Biltong and droewors are marketed as healthy meat snacks that are not smoked, and contain no sugar, soy, gluten or nitrates. Products are routinely air dried for weeks.

Not long after the van Blommestein family immigrated to the US from South Africa, they launched their product line using a recipe that dates back multiple generations.

“We are happy to be able to bring our South African recipe air-dried beef snacks to both South Africans craving a taste of home and quality food lovers along the east coast,” said Wian van Blommestein, Ayoba-Yo’s co-owner. “We admire Kings and Balducci’s commitment to carrying premium products with great taste and believe that our values are well aligned.”