The fat in this Matsusaka Wagyu is so soft it melts as soon as you touch it. Dekuji! I put it in my mouth and it melts.
The finest cuts of Matsusaka Wagyu have a melting point of 12 degrees Celsius. That's 8 degrees less than Kobe. And while prices for fine diners in Tokyo have never been low, for the first time this beef is being sold outside of Japan, in Paris, where just 100 grams sells for $530.
These cows are so valuable that in 2002 one fetched 50 million yen, over $330,000 at auction. To reach that low melting point, farmers in Matsusaka painstakingly raise these cows and keep them alive longer than their average lifespan with modern and ancient practices. So how do you raise the most expensive beef in the world? And why is Matsusaka Wagyu so expensive? This is the sarlown of Ito Bokujo.
The monthly salary is 40 months. Hiroki Ito is a third generation Matsusaka wagi farmer. On his farm in Tsu, Mie prefecture, you will find only virgin female cows.
cows. It's the primary requirement for any of the 80 Matsusaka Wagyu farms here in the Mie Prefecture. The softness is also more soft for females. The smell is good, the taste is sweet, and the softness melts in the mouth.
Matsusaka beef has long been praised for its extremely low melting point, which is half that of other types of Wagyu. This means that when cooking, the fat melts in a shorter time. The melting point is low, so it melts a little.
If you touch it with your finger, it will be dented. If the point of view is low, it will slip. It will slip like this. To reach this intense marbling, old generations of farmers like Hideo, Hiroki's dad, used to feed cows with beer.
I was 25 years old when I started drinking beer. Now I'm 73 years old. I think I'm the first person who has ever lost a beer.
Although there's no evidence that this practice increases a cow's appetite, many associate Matsusaka-waki with it. The fact that Matsusaka has kept a relatively low profile internationally has almost transformed this practice into a legend. I thought you didn't like it that much. I'm forced to drink from my mouth.
I think I'll get more appetite after I drink. Hiroki doesn't practice this anymore. Instead, he has perfected the feed and is practicing circular agriculture.
This is the rice that comes from the rice field. The rice is eaten first to prepare the inside of the stomach. After this, the rice is given a high-quality feed.
It is a mixture of fuchima, wheat, soy bean, and corn. The high-quality feed is used to make meat. The high-quality feed is used to make a big cow.
The cost of feed is an important factor that drives the prices up. To reach that soft marbling, Matsusaka cows need to eat a lot. They also need to eat for a much longer time than other cows.
It costs about 1.5 times more. Matsusaka cows are raised for 30 to 32 months, six months longer than other Japanese black cattle. Everything adds up over time for Hiroki.
The costs of feeding, temperature control, air circulation, and cleaning the enclosures regularly to avoid flies. Farmers here call this raising period fattening. For the first three to four months, cattle eat grass to develop a strong digestive system.
This is called the belly creation period. Then comes the finishing period, where cattle gradually switch to concentrated feed and rice straw to fatten up. Hiroki is now experimenting with even longer periods of fattening, raising his cattle from 35 up to 40 months.
But raising cows for such a long time can also be dangerous for Hiroki, as a cow could get sick and die. While the cattle are being raised for a long time, they have a life expectancy of a cow. If they are raised for a long time, they will naturally become sick or have a poor appetite. The temperature of the body gets worse. Long-term care is a burden on the body in many ways.
A cow at the end of its fattening period is a true treasure. Every year, Matsusaka cows get auctioned off and one gets crowned Queen of Matsusaka. While the highest ever price for one of these cows was 50 million yen in 2002, This auction has never really seen a low price, averaging around ¥20 million.
Events like the auction have also fostered another legend, that farmers in Matsusaka massage their cows with alcohol. This time, it is not to improve their appetite, but their appearance. I always clean it up and make sure it's clean.
But my farm is clean. I want to show off the shape of the plant. I think more people are being killed by beer and cow dung. It's not just adult cows that cost a lot. Calves can be very expensive.
This cow dung costs about 1 million yen. Hiroki doesn't raise his cattle from birth. At 10 months old, calves are also sold at auctions throughout Japan. Hiroki spends almost half of his time at work buying calves.
And he's very demanding. First, I look at the face. And I look at the wide forehead of the cow. The cow has a wide mouth, so it's good for feeding and eating. I also look at the beautiful horns of the cow.
Then I look at the back of the cow, the tail, the tailbone, and the tail. We choose cows that are well-reared. This cow is the best quality BMS12.
I can confirm that. BMS12 is the highest marbling grade for Wagyu in Japan. The more intense the marbling, the higher the price.
For customers in Tokyo, 100g of sirloin costs ¥10,000. But that's still much less than what Parisians are paying at Maria Canea, where the same cut is sold at €360. The most premium cut, Tenderloin, sells for €5,000 per kilogram. Since we have respected the temperature, the melting point is very good. As soon as I put it in my mouth, it melts directly.
The natural air in our mouth helps us reach the temperature we need, so it takes seconds. It's not my first time tasting this, but every time I do, I have nothing to say. The Paris restaurant was the first to successfully export Matsusaka Wagyu out of Japan and include it on its menu. Its most expensive tasting menu costs 520 euros.
Matsusaka Wagyu is heavily regulated. To include Matsusaka beef on the menu, the restaurant had to follow strict rules. The Paris restaurant needed to apply for a license, which took a year to be accredited.
To maintain it, the restaurant needs to have a high rating on Google, and there can't be another restaurant serving Matsusaka Wagyu within an 840-meter radius. As of 2023, Hiroki has shipped only three cows to Tmariakanea. Due to this limited supply, the €520 menu with Ito Ranch's premium tenderloin is served to only one table per day.
This exclusivity is set to get a little bit looser. In the last 10 years, Japan has been a major importer of US beef, importing an average of $1.83 billion a year. Meanwhile, Millions worth of Wagyu made the opposite journey as it reached international fame. A decline in tourism after the COVID-19 outbreak and a change in consumer behavior toward cheaper meats exacerbated this.
And now, Japanese cattle farmers are looking outside the country's borders. The export quota for Matsusaka has jumped from 24 in 2022 to 700 in 2024. Of those, it's the most premium cuts that are exported going to high-end restaurants like Maria Canea in Paris. This is pushing farmers who want to ship abroad to bet on those lucrative but dangerous long-fattening periods.