Wagyu beef’s wholesale price falls to 4-year low as consumption slows
TOKYO — Wholesale prices of wagyu beef in Japan have fallen to the lowest level since June 2020 when demand for meat from the Japanese cattle breeds slumped amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
With prices showing no signs of a rebound, farmers — already tormented by rising costs — are finding themselves deeper in the doldrums.
Consumer demand for wagyu beef, expensive high-end meat products, is weak at times of inflation. There are supermarkets that have stopped selling it altogether.
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The wholesale price of the highest ranked A5 wagyu beef — the weighted average price of bullock meat — came to 2,377 yen ($16.13) per kilogram in the Tokyo market in July, down 7% from a year earlier, according to the Japan Meat Market Wholesalers’ Association. The price dropped year-on-year for the fifth consecutive month to the lowest in four years.
In 2020, wholesale prices for the beef shifted dramatically. They dropped early in the year because of weakened demand caused by the pandemic but subsequently ascended on an increase in exports to Asian markets and the U.S. thanks to heightened demand for high-priced food products for stay-at-home consumption.
Prices are slumping again due mainly to feeble demand, but are still high for most consumers. A woman in her 50s, who bought minced beef at a supermarket in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, said, “Wagyu beef is priced so high that I don’t think I want to buy.”
Despite the weak demand, production of wagyu beef has continued to increase. The number of wagyu cattle raised by farmers increased on year for 18 months in a row in June to 41,679, up 3%, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
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