By William Hollingworth
     Japanese Wagyu beef has long been the preserve of Britain's exclusive restaurants and London's high-end stores, like Harrods.
     However, the average man in the street will soon be able to have a taste of the prized beef thanks to a major supermarket chain which wants to bring luxury foods to everyone.
     ASDA, part of the Walmart group, has just started breeding cross Holstein-Wagyu cattle for its supermarkets and hopes to start selling the product from early 2011.
     Although not pure Wagyu meat, which retails for as much as $170 per kilogram, the meat will have many of the characteristics of Wagyu (which literally means Japanese cattle) which make it so appetizing to gourmets.
     With Wagyu beef, the fat is more evenly distributed than in other meats and it has a highly marbled appearance. The fine strands of unsaturated fat in the meat melt when it is cooked, giving it a greater depth of flavor than other kinds of beef.
     ASDA plans to sell a striploin of its Wagyu-Holstein for $41 per kg, which means that it can be afforded by most consumers.
     Because the store is producing its own Wagyu and does not have to import anything, the store is confident it can keep costs down and reduce the price to the consumer.
     Pearce Hughes, the company's agricultural development manager, said, ''Wagyu beef is the best in the world, but until now it has been the preserve of the extremely well-to-do. We want to make it affordable for the average man in the street.''
     ASDA took semen from two pedigree black Wagyu bulls which are resident in Britain. Breeders in southern Scotland then inseminated a Holstein cow and a few months later their efforts paid off with the birth of the first Wagyu-cross, which they have named ''Inochi,'' which means ''life'' in Japanese.
     The bulls used in the breeding process are the result of implanting Australian fullblood Wagyu embryos into cows in Europe. The bulls' genes are linked to the Kedeka and Fujiyoshi lines.
     Following the successful birth, farmers will now inseminate further Holstein cows on a Yorkshire farm and the plan is to produce 2,500 Wagyu-Holsteins each year, providing 750 tons of meat.
     ASDA has decided to use Holstein dairy cattle in the program rather than other breeds such as Red Devon and Aberdeen Angus females, partly because the latter two are more valuable for pure breeding than Holsteins.
     But Hughes adds, ''Wagyu-cross-Holstein is deemed as the ultimate cross in Japan because the two breeds lay down marbling in exactly the same way, producing top quality meat superior to Wagyu-cross-Angus or Red Devon. It has been known for Wagyu-Holstein beef to match the eating quality of purebred Wagyu in taste trials.''
     The meat will be less fatty than pure Wagyu but bosses at ASDA believe that this will appeal to health-conscious Britons.
     Pure Wagyu have been bred in Wales on a small scale since 2000. Farmer David Wynne Finch imported some embryos of mixed black Wagyu and implanted them into some standard cross-bred beef cows. He has a herd of around 30 Wagyus.
     The Wagyu breed has only been exported out of Japan on three occasions.
     While the Wagyu breed is considered indigenous to Japan, DNA testing has shown that it was influenced by European breeds brought about through cross-breeding in the early 1900s.
     The Wagyu breed comes in black and brown colors. The blacks originate from four areas of Japan -- Tottori, Tajima, Shimane and Okayama -- each with slightly different attributes. Other types of Wagyu originate from Kochi on the island of Shikoku and Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu.
     In Japan, it is claimed that farmers massage their Wagyu cows in order to ensure the fat is evenly distributed. They are also fed grain and given beer to stimulate appetite.
     However, many Western breeders have cast doubt on these practices and believe that the quality of the meat derives from the genetics and nothing else.
     Many breeders believe Japan has looked down on the Wagyu cattle bred outside the country and the government has said in the past that only Wagyu born in Japan can be labeled Wagyu.
     ASDA is keen to bring exotic foods to the man in the street and is currently establishing a truffle forest in the north of England.
     ASDA is also cultivating edamame -- baby, green soybeans -- in Britain.
==Kyodo