Carving out a niche for wagyu afficionados

A cut of chilled Australian wagyu beef can take as little as 15 days to reach the refrigeration cabinets at Meat Mate, a chain of modern butcher shops in Beijing specializing in the delicacy.

Japanese wagyu is one of the world's finest meat products and is famous for its signature marbling, but it is not readily available on the Chinese market.

Australia received its first wagyu genetics in 1990 and has been successfully breeding the cattle ever since. Australian wagyu producers currently export up to 90 percent of their beef globally.