The main customers are expected to be premium hotels and restaurants, as well as keen cooks and lovers of top-quality beef.

Retail prices range from Bt1,500 to Bt1,850 a kilogram.

Certified Angus Beef - a 29-year-old not-for-profit division of the American Angus Association - grades the beef. All certified Angus must have modest to high marbling and a medium to fine texture, as well as the bright-red colour that conveys juicy flavour and tenderness.

Senior customer service/marketing manager for Asia Pacific Daisuke Shimojima said only 8 per cent of all beef in the US met the certification standard.

The company hopes it will be another product helping it achieve Bt400 million in sales - lower than last year's Bt450 million.

Wallapa said this was the first year in eight that the company had set a target lower than the previous year, with political uncertainty as the major factor. Many premium hotel and restaurant clients have experienced business declines and have reduced orders accordingly.

The company imports beef from the US, Norway, Australia and New Zealand.

To increase the awareness of certified Angus the company will apply the marketing model a Philippines distributor used to treble sales in three years.

It emphasises the benefits of eating certified Angus. In the second year the company will evaluate market places and in the third it will measure sales feedback.

In the first year Tohkaiya will arrange cooking contests, seminars, food shows, steak campaigns and public relations. This should result in sales of 25 tonnes by the end of the year. The company did not say how much it plans to spend to reach this number.

Certified Angus is available at 8,000 restaurants and grocery stores in the US and another 50 countries.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation