Wagyu Beef

Wagyu Beef

This Japanese cattle breed is the most expensive in the world. Its finely marbled lean meat is a much sought-after delicacy.

If you have ever tried its wonderfully tender and highly aromatic meat, you will inevitably find yourself enthusing about how it melts in your mouth and leaves a finely spicy flavour that no other meat can offer. Why does Japanese beef (the literal translation of Wagyu) taste so different? Compared with other types of cattle such as Angus, it has a particularly large and powerful stature. Its meat is low in cholesterol and highly nutritious. The animals are not fed artificial growth hormones or prophylactic antibiotics. Throughout their history, they have rarely been crossed with other breeds, because for centuries, these cattle were primarily kept as draught animals. The consumption of meat was prohibited by the rules of Buddhism in Japan. It was only after the opening up of Japan in 1868 that cattle with higher muscle mass were in greater demand: Japanese Black (Kuroge Wagyu), Japanese Shorthorn (Tankaku Wagyu) and Japanese Brown (Akage Wagyu). The Japanese Black is the most widespread.

Wagyu may only be designated as Kobe beef if they have been born, raised, fattened and slaughtered in the Kobe region of Japan. Less than 0.5 percent of the Wagyu beef produced in Japan is Kobe beef. Since the mid-1990s, Wagyu cattle have been exported to the USA for scientific purposes and there are now large Wagyu herds in both the USA and Canada. The export of Wagyu beef, live cattle, embryos and semen to Europe was first permitted in 2014. As a result, there are comparatively few Wagyu farms in Europe, but that is sure to change in the future. In 2017 in Germany, some 140 breeders and farmers grouped together to form the Wagyu Association.

Text: Rainer Meier