A piece of air-dried spiced meat might seem an alarming snack for a teething baby.

But Zimbabwean butcher Henry Viviers, who has set up shop in Brighton, insists it is a way of life.

In fact, Mr Viviers can barely keep up with orders from expatriate Zimbabweans and South Africans for the chewy delicacy.

He said: "We were brought up on it in the old country. When children were teething, the first thing we would give them is a piece of biltong.

"You tell that to English people and they think it's disgusting and unhealthy. There's nothing wrong with it, though.

"Every pub in Zimbabwe has biltong, every garage, every supermarket, and not just one brand - there are about 20 different companies selling it.

"I'm selling a lot of it. I'm cutting every day but keep running out."

His store, Westdene Butchery, in Eldred Avenue, Brighton, has been open since January but he was missing the food he lived on at home and now has a licence to sell huge Boerewors sausages and biltong.

Biltong is spiced with salt, pepper, coriander and other spices and dried for four days at a controlled temperature.

He also has a wide selection of meat on the bone which Zimbabweans traditionally serve in a spicy sauce with sudsa, a white, doughy side dish.

Mr Viviers, 49, was living with his sister Louise in a farm near Zimbabwe's capital Harare when the country's economic problems began to mount.

President Robert Mugabe's land reform scheme meant farmers had their land seized by "war veterans" and with main exports like tobacco hampered, the country's economy plummeted.

The exchange rate is currently 10,000 Zimbabwean dollars to the pound, down from 13 in 1994.

Mr Viviers said: "The veterans took over my sister's farm. There was no violence but there was at our neighbours' places.

"People would refuse to leave their farms. Who wants to leave? It's your land.

"We left to try to start a new life and we have been given a second chance here.

"One of the sad things about leaving was we had to put all our dogs down.

"We had six Jack Russells and we could not afford to send them here. It was something like a £1,000 a dog.

"What I miss most is going out on a houseboat on Lake Kariba and watching elephants and hippos. I saw a lion kill a buffalo just 200 metres from us.

"We sold everything to get here. Life was good in Zimbabwe but at every corner there would be a road block. They would stop you and do whatever they could to put you away. It was not the government but the militias. They are the ones harassing, stealing and robbing."

When Mr Viviers arrived in England late last year he worked in a meat factory but having trained as a butcher in South Africa, he wanted to return to his trade.

The decision has helped his homesickness. He said: "I get people coming in speaking Afrikaans and Shona, one of the main languages in Zimbabwe. I'm running into lots of people from Africa."