U.S. beef and pork were showcased at the Yakiniku Business Fair in Tokyo, one of the most important annual trade shows for Japan’s restaurant sector, with support from USDA, the Beef Checkoff Program and the United Soybean Board.
“The yakiniku industry is a big user of variety meat, beef tongue, sometimes pork tongue and also intestine, large and small. For the muscle cuts, we prefer short ribs, short plates and loins. So that’s making wide usage of the carcass,” Tom Kasatani, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) marketing director in Japan, said in the most recent USMEF Report.
What’s yakiniku? Yakiniku refers to a style of cooking bite-size meat and vegetables on gridirons or griddles over a flame of wood charcoals. Yakiniku restaurants utilize a wide range of U.S. beef and pork cuts and variety meat – including tongue and intestines – which customers help prepare using the restaurants’ signature tabletop grills.
The Yakiniku Business Fair started about 10 years ago. It’s a trade show focused mainly on Yakiniku restaurants. The fair’s lineup of exhibitors includes meat suppliers, equipment manufacturers, spice and sauce companies and culinary organizations, Kasatani explains. The show is also a preferred venue for many competitors of U.S. red meat in Japan, including domestic trade associations as well as suppliers from Australia and Mexico.
“We do work with some of the exhibitors, like a seasoning company. For example, today we had some Japan barbecue association nearby. We work together with them supporting the beef grilling cook off contest,” Kastani says. “We collaborate with those companies to introduce the beef and pork usage and do promotion together to increase the demand of the American products.”
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