Wagyu farmers in Asagawa machi in Fukushima fed straw with high levels of radiation to cattle, and this radiation was detected in the central meat market in Tokyo. This caused the Wagyu market to crash where meat from Kanto and Japan's northeast was selling much cheaper than the equivalent grade in Kyushu. The distributors are demanding that better detection procedures are put in place to get rid of this uncertainty. This is interesting in the context of everything Japan has said to the US and Canada about BSE detection.
This chart shows the March to July movement in 2010 and 2011 of A5 and A3 wagyu. A3 has gone from 1600 yen to 1200 yen. All of it is the cheapest it has been in 5 years. People familiar with the market have watched the low prices spread from Fukushima prefecture to surrounding areas. Prices in Hokkaido, Aomori, and Kyushu remained high though.
Distributors are frustrated: Why doesn't the government hurry up and tell us that it is okay to sell the meat that we have bought. Of course the fatteners are frustrated as well: Not only do we not have the money to buy cattle to feed at this price; we cannot even afford the feed.
So the misery continues.
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