The Ariake Beef Plant has obtained licenses for domestic distribution and also exports licenses for 46 countries and regions in North America, South America, Southeast Asia and EU countries. As an approved export facility, we dedicate ourselves to facility maintenance and hygienic operations under high hygiene standards. Our facility has a daily production capacity of up to 130 cattle for slaughtering and 105 cattle for cutting. In the cutting department, we are working to produce high quality products by cutting meat according to the needs of our customers. In recent years, we have been dispatching young employees overseas to enhance their cutting technology. We believe that this will lead to the further expansion of Japanese wagyu beef production. We are also committed to providing a rewarding and lively work environment for our young employees.

Won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award at the 2017 Excellent Business Enterprise Awards for Exports

In 1999, we established a new plant specializing in advanced hygiene management of cattle processing. Our positive efforts include the acquisition of the ISO and other international standards in order to build a world-class level of hygiene management. Subsequently, we have been able to increase the number of countries to which we can export our meat. Currently, we can export beef to a total of 46 countries and regions. Our export performance has been increasing every year. In addition, we actively participate in sales promotion activities overseas to disseminate the wonderfulness of wagyu. Since there is no culture of eating thinly sliced beef in Europe and the United States, we have begun sending our technicians to these locations to promote our cutting techniques and offer suggestions on a variety of cooking methods. In recognition of these efforts, we received the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award at the 2017 Excellent Business Enterprise Awards for Exports.

Proactive efforts have been carried out as a production base for exports overseas

While domestic consumption of beef has been sluggish due to the economic slump, there is a growing interest in Japanese culinary culture and the good reputation of quality Japanese food ingredients. We have focused on the strong expectation of quality wagyu beef demand among the high-end customers of Hong Kong, Singapore, and other Asian nations.

On the other hand, the distribution of “Wagyu” cattle raised in foreign countries is already underway. Because Japanese wagyu beef cattle grown in Japan is more expensive than the overseas breeds, which originally descended from Japanese wagyu beef cattle, it was necessary to develop a proper evaluation, understanding and appreciation of its quality and safety through individual identification management. When obtaining export approval for Europe, the management of animal welfare was required in addition to hygiene management. Consequently, we were mandated to strive to improve awareness among our employees.

Therefore, we carefully explain the unique Japanese system of “Individual Identification Number Management” and “Japanese Beef Pedigree Management” when overseas customers visit us. We also encourage them to understand meat quality through the tasting process. Through training and other opportunities, we endeavor to share the understanding of “animal welfare” with all our employees. By so doing, we are striving to achieve the ideal status as a meat processing operator.

We have won a good reputation from Japanese customers thanks to our world-class hygiene management

In 1998, we introduced the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) HACCP system, which is considered the world’s most stringent. In 2002, we acquired ISO 14001 certification, and in 2005 we were the first meat processing plant in Japan to acquire ISO 22000 certification.

Our efforts to meet the requirement of our trade partner countries as well as acquisition of various certifications helped us to smoothly obtain facility approval from major exporting countries. Recently, our sales to overseas countries has expanded to the level where over 600 wagyu beef cattle have been slaughtered and processed for export per month. Furthermore, we have won a good reputation from Japanese customers thanks to our world-class hygiene management.

* ISO14001: An international standard for environmental management systems to ensure management with consideration of the environment on a global scale.
* ISO22000: An international standard for food safety management systems to ensure food safety and security.

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