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Menu Ideas for U.S. Pork, Beef Showcased at Tokyo’s Yakiniku Business Fair

Published: Feb 27, 2018
00:00 / 00:00

You may download the audio file here





Promoting the quality and flavor of U.S. pork and beef to one of the fastest growing foodservice sectors in Japan, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) recently participated in the Yakiniku Business Fair. Held annually in Tokyo, this event is Japan’s largest trade show for the yakiniku industry and one of the country’s largest food trade shows. USMEF’s promotional efforts at the Yakiniku Business Fair were funded by the Pork Checkoff, the Beef Checkoff Program, the Texas Beef Council and the USDA Market Access Program (MAP). USMEF is a contractor to the Pork Checkoff and the Beef Checkoff Program, and a USDA-MAP cooperator.

In the attached audio report, USMEF-Japan Director Takemichi Yamashoji notes that USMEF promoted a U.S. beef “pound steak” at the event. While steaks in Japan are typically 150 to 200 grams (one-third to one-half pound), larger and thicker cuts are gaining popularity. So this year USMEF’s booth featured a 454-gram steak, which is the equivalent of a full pound. U.S. pork cheese teji karubi, a Korean-style barbecue dish, was also a featured menu item.

USMEF-Japan Marketing Manager Tatsuru Kasatani adds that because the Yakiniku Business Fair offers insights on such a wide range of products and services, it attracts leading meat buyers from the yakiniku industry – making it a very attractive and effective event for promoting U.S. pork and beef.

More details on the Yakiniku Business Fair are available from the USMEF website.

Pronunciations in the above text:

Yakiniku: YAK-EE-NEE-KOO
Takemichi Yamashoji: TAKE-MEE-CHEE YOMMA-SHOW-JEE
Tatsuru Kasatani: TAT-SOO-ROO KAZ-A-TA-NEE
Teji karubi: TAY-JEE KA-ROO-BEE

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele:

Yakiniku restaurants, where diners grill food at the table, are so popular in Japan that one of the country's largest food trade shows is dedicated solely to that sector. In this U.S. Meat Export Federation report, we catch up with two senior staff members from USMEF-Japan at this year's Yakiniku business fair, where USMEF promoted U.S. pork and beef thanks to support from the Pork Checkoff, the Beef Checkoff Program, the Texas Beef Council and the USDA Market Access Program. Here's USMEF-Japan Director Takemichi Yamashoji.

Takemichi Yamashoji:

Japanese yakiniku market is growing every year, and this yakiniku show is the largest in Japan. So this year is the tenth anniversary of this trade show, so every year we have a booth and we are providing updated information on U.S. beef and pork. This year for beef we provided a new menu which is pound steak — it's a thicker steak. For pork, teji karubi cheese — that is the kind of new type of menu to introduce in the Japanese yakiniku market.

Joe Schuele:

USMEF Marketing Manager Tatsuru Kasatani says the event is extremely popular with the yakiniku sector's top meat buyers.

Tatsuru Kasatani:

Yakiniku fair is very important for marketing to the foodservice sector in Japan, especially meat products. This place is very good, because the target — if they come here they can see the trend for all food servicing including material, meat, veggies, fish, liquors, machines, equipment. So it is a very important trade show.

Joe Schuele:

For on this event, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.