February 2, 2012

Japan exports "Kobe Beef" to Macao

For the first time in history, Japan's "Kobe Beef" was exported Wednesday (Feb 1) to China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) by a beef marketing organisation based in western Japanese city of Kobe.

Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association said that an airplane carrying 200 kilogrammes of the beef took off from Fukuoka Airport in the country's south western Kyushu Island.
 

The group said that after inspection the first batch of meat will be on sale in Macao as "eye-catcher commodity" by the next weekend before St. Valentine's Day. The beef will be sold at about US$65 per 100 grams in the city.

The association's chief secretary Masataka Ikeda told Xinhua that although some farmers in the region had strong opinions against exporting their beef to foreign countries, the group as a whole came to the conclusion to expand overseas sales of the beef.

He added that because Japan's domestic consumption of "Kobe Beef" decreased over the past years, the group expects to widen its trading networks in China and other Asian countries and regions where sales of expensive beef are increasing.

According to the association, "Kobe Beef" refers only to meat from cows of "Tajima-gyu" lineage born and grown in the dedicated farms located in Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan.

The brand name can only be used for beef that meets the group's criteria. The role of a breeding farm is to decide which bloodline calves should be bred and raise healthy calves to the age of nine months.