The reindeerhusbandry of the Sami nation in the north of Sweden represents a unique form of pastoralism with strong elements of natural and social embeddedness. While the pastoralism, characterized by small scale businesses, producing small quantities of high quality meat, the industry is also struggling with low profitability.  By examining the actors and spaces of the reindeer meat commodity system, the aim is to unveil the cultural, political and economic factors which are creating it. Drawing attention to the change of paradigm in the agri-food industry, the paper sets out to examine how the actors in the reindeer meat value chain corresponds to these changes. And what the possibilities are to strengthen the connections with the growing market of exclusive foodstuffs. Findings show that while governance on a state level acts to stimulate the advent of small scale reindeer refinery, the difficulties for these actors is to penetrate the market world of the suppliers and grocery chains.