For over a week now, every morning, Ms. Dao Thi Cam Quynh has been posting Australian Aukobe beef for sale at a cheap price of only 250,000 VND/kg for the round shoulder core with marbled fat. Along with the posts, she always emphasizes that this is a rare premium beef, when pan-fried or grilled with light spices, you can enjoy the ultimate "melting beef" piece.

Ms. Quynh said that this type of beef is imported from Australia and is not available regularly. This time around Tet At Ty, the warehouse reported that there was stock, so she took the opportunity to import it to sell.

“It’s the end-of-year party season, so Aukobe beef is very popular,” she said. Because this type of meat is pre-cut into 250-gram rounds, it is suitable for BBQ, pan-frying or stir-frying... Accordingly, she sells about 70-80kg of this type of beef every day.

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Aukobe beef imported from Australia is being sold in abundance on the market near Tet. Photo: NVCC

These days, Aukobe beef is “covering” the Tet market. Online traders are constantly advertising with flowery words such as: premium beef, the best beef in the world , marbled fat makes the beef soft, sweet and melts when eaten...

With the "excellent" quality as advertised, but instead of costing millions, the price of Australian Aukobe beef is surprisingly cheap, only 220,000-270,000 VND/kg. Notably, in the market in the last days of 2024, Aukobe beef is always crowded with buyers and sellers.

“Aukobe beef is sliced ​​and packed in trays weighing 0.5kg/tray in vacuum. This is a frozen product, so customers usually order 2-3kg to store for later consumption,” said Mr. Pham Xuan Hieu, an employee of a food chain store in Hai Ba Trung ( Hanoi ).

According to him, the price of Aukobe beef increased to 250,000 VND/kg near Tet. Previously, the store only sold it for 200,000 VND/kg. However, at the store where Mr. Hieu works, this imported beef is still very popular.

For example, last weekend morning, this Aukobe beef alone had more than 100kg divided among shippers to deliver to customers. If we estimate the amount of beef sold by the entire chain of stores that day, it must be up to several hundred kilograms.

So why is Aukobe beef advertised as having the same quality as Japanese Kobe beef but at a super cheap price?

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Traders advertise this as a premium beef with the characteristic marbling of fat that makes the meat soft, sweet, and melts when eaten. Photo: NVCC

Talking to PV.VietNamNet , Mr. Tran Van Cuong - manager of a food store chain in Hanoi, said that Aukobe is the name given to beef produced according to a breeding process based on Japan's famous Wagyu technique, combined with Australia's advanced breeding process.

Aukobe cattle are also crossbred from Japanese Wagyu cattle with Australian Angus cattle, then raised according to strict standards, ensuring the highest quality meat.

However, natural, officially imported Aukobe beef usually costs from 500,000 VND to about 1 million VND/kg depending on the type.

As for the cheap Aukobe beef today, Mr. Cuong thinks it could be the goods that are about to expire, being sold by warehouses. In addition, in the world, there is also a technology to inject fat into beef to create layers of fat interwoven with lean meat, which people often call marbled.

Australian Aukobe beef also uses the pique technique to create beautiful marbled fat, while creating a juicy, soft and sweet texture. Accordingly, the beef has been cut fresh, the worker will filter out excess fat and then use the Pique technique to inject the filtered fat into the lean beef.

Not only Aukobe beef technology, in Australia, fat grafting technology to create marble is also applied to famous Hokubee beef.

Because of the technology of injecting fat into the lean meat, when thawed and processed, the beef will be a bit loose and not as tightly bound as natural beef. Therefore, the price of this type of beef is also much cheaper, Mr. Cuong said.

The truth is that beef is cheaper than pork, starting at only 80,000 VND/kg. On the online market, cheap beef is sold everywhere, starting at only 80,000 VND/kg. However, the origin of this type of beef has not been clearly verified. Many people think that it is beef raised with banned substances or Indian buffalo meat.