'Kobe Beef' exported to the United States for the first time

OSAKA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Top-quality Japanese beef known as " Kobe Beef" was exported to the United States for the first time on Thursday by a beef marketing organization based in western Japanese city of Kobe.

Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association said that a plane carrying about 170 kg of fillet, loin and other parts from five cows took off from Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

The group said that after inspection at its dedicated facility in Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan, the beef was shipped out to American steakhouses in San Francisco.

A spokesperson for the association told Xinhua that the United States is the third overseas location to receive shipments of the signature beef after Macau and Hong Kong, the places where nearly 10 tons of the meet have been consumed since the beginning of trade earlier this year.

"Kobe Beef" refers only to meat from cows of "Tajima-gyu" lineage born and grown in the special farms in Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan. The brand name can only be used for beef that meets the group's criteria.

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