When the beef stakes are high, Wagyu beef steak prices are generally even higher.
Such is the demand for the breed whose popularity is now so great it commands its own commodity grouping – separate to beef – at major international trade shows.
And experts remain upbeat about its future, saying the Wagyu bubble shows no signs of bursting anytime soon.
Wagyu, renowned for its marbling and eating quality, has gone from zero to hero since its introduction to Australia in the early 1990s. Wagyu beef now sits squarely at the top of menus at high-brow restaurants, has become an industry leader in genetics and performance, and continues to deliver record prices to producers. When feeder steers from other beef breeds were commanding $2.20/kg liveweight in the Australian marketplace last year, Wagyu was selling for $6/kg.
Last year was a big one for the breed. National registration numbers grew 39 per cent, bucking the trend of stagnant memberships of most beef breeds and a regular online breed auction was introduced – leading to an immediate 50 per cent jump in prices for producers. Meanwhile, local Wagyu took top honours in an international steak competition.
Australian Wagyu Association president Peter Gilmour says the breed has evolved from “a cottage industry when we started” in the early 1990s to “a sophisticated supply chain industry” that is experiencing “unprecedented growth”.
“And I don’t think we’re at our peak yet,” Gilmour says. “With a peak you usually see price resistance. We’re not.”
In fact, he sees opportunity. With estimates Wagyu accounts for less than 1 per cent of national beef herd numbers and about 8-9 per cent of feedlot space, there’s room for growth.
Gilmour says the popularity of Wagyu is “all in the eating”. “Once you get well-performing Wagyu, it has that absolutely exquisite eating that counts for everything,” he says.
It’s this taste sensation that won a NSW family-run specialist beef producer World’s Best Steak at the World Steak Challenge in London last month, for the second year running. The honour was the culmination of decades of hard work for the Warmoll family, which was among the first in Australia to breed Wagyu in the early 1990s.