KAGOSHIMA, Japan/MELBOURNE-- Some customers at Sydney's Sutcliffe Meats were appalled in late August when they saw the price of the exquisitely marbled steaks displayed under the glass counter: 400 Australian dollars ($283) per kilogram, double what other local butcher shops were charging for their highest-quality beef. But Stephen Kelly, the shop's owner, knew that Kagoshima wagyu -- beef from the black cattle raised in Japan's Kagoshima Prefecture -- had hardcore fans.
"They sold out quickly," Kelly said. "Now we are looking to do more."