How 10 Trending Foods Are Produced Around The World

Workers in Pakistan pack the walls of this mountain to extract pink Himalayan salt that'll mostly be shipped to the US and Europe. Matcha has gotten so popular in the US that farmers in Japan are struggling to keep up with demand, leading to shortages and price hikes. And though acai has gained superfood status, families who've picked the fruits for generations aren't always seeing the financial benefits. When we see trendy foods on Instagram and Tik Tok, we don't usually see the people and processes that make the trends possible. We traveled around the world to show you the stories behind 10 different trending foods.

This bony cut of beef has become a hot commodity. It's called oxtail and it goes for around $14 a pound. About the same price as a pound of sirloin steak, but for a lot less meat. I'm selling out of oxtail like every week. I can't keep up. But that wasn't always the case. For a long time, oxtail was considered a throwaway cut of beef in the United States. As recently as two decades ago, it only cost a few dollars per pound. Back then in like what early 2000 nobody wanted it. So what changed? — The reputation of oxtail is as high as it's ever been. — Now prices have skyrocketed for everyone. And some who've been eating oxtail all along aren't happy about the hike. — Oxtail prices are just getting out of hand, fam. We're not about it. An online movement has started to make oxtail cheap again. Business Insider even found itself in the middle of the viral controversy. So why is oxtail suddenly so expensive? And what does the increasing price mean for people who've been eating oxtail for generations? Finding oxtail on menus in the United States was rare just a couple decades ago. Pat Lefreda's family's butcher shop in New Jersey has been selling the cut since it opened in 1922. He says that in the past the cut of beef never got much attention from restaurants. Most of his oxtail sales came from Latin American, Asian, and Caribbean communities who have cooked with it for generations. There are many cultures that focus in on the oxtail because at one time it was an economy cut. — One big reason oxtail was considered a throwaway is that it has a lot less meat than other cuts of beef. That's because it's mostly bone and fat with only about 40% usable meat. To get the same amount of meat as one pound of another cut of beef like sirloin steak, you'd need 2 and 12 lb of oxtail. So when you really calculate how much meat you have for poundage of product, it's not much. — Still, those eating oxtail back then knew it wasn't like any other cut of beef. — The flavor is so distinctive. You could close your eyes, probably put your blindfold on, you will know that it's oxtail. — Oxtail is high in collagen and is more gelatinous than most other cuts of beef. The collagen breaks down when it's cooked and gives the meat a buttery melt in your mouth texture. I love oxels. If they cook correctly, not anybody can cook ourselves. And if you season it right, oh my god, it going to last in the mouth for days. — It really is the pearl of of the animal. But because it's so succulent and because it's so spoon tender once cooked, there's no mistaking that for any other cut in the animal. And while oxtail wasn't widely in demand in the US, the story was much different in Jamaica where food lovers have long known the value of the bony beef. — I don't know if it's a bone or something, but most um overseas they come to Jamaica just for the oxtail. — O'Shea Williams learned how to cook traditional Jamaican oxtail stew when he was a child. — It's not to be prepared like any other way. Today, it's one of the bestselling dishes at his seaside restaurant, O'Shea's 876 Kitchen in Port Antonio, Jamaica. The dish dates back to the island's colonial era, when enslaved Africans were given unwanted animal parts like oxtail to eat. Using their ancestral cooking techniques and local spices, they turned it into a flavorful stew that's now a staple of Jamaican cuisine. The oxtail is typically chopped into 1 in pieces and seasoned with fresh spices. First, we're going to start with the garlic. onion next. Some skeleion. We're going to start with the pepper. Scotch bunny pepper. Scan is add the spice. like hot. The meat is then slowcooked over an open fire for hours until it falls off the bone. — Really good. — Everything is right. Little spice is very nice. While oxtail was always somewhat of a luxury in Jamaica, the prices O'Shea is seeing today are way higher than before. That's because there's more demand in the US. 41% of meat imported to Jamaica comes from the US, including oxtail. So, if prices are up state side, they're up in Jamaica, too. — I might have to raise price because the things are already getting high. I believe that oxtail price will never up. It's always been going up and up. — Oxtail's popularity in the US has been on the rise since the mid2010s, but it really spiked during and after the CO 19 pandemic. As supply chain issues drove up beef prices in America, consumers searching for cheaper meat turned to cuts like oxtail. But oxtail was never meant to have such a high demand. Oxtail only makes up 4 to six pounds of a cow compared to the hundreds of pounds of the other beef cuts. This limited supply combined with growing demand has more than doubled US oxtail prices over the past decade from $6 in 2015 to 14 in 2024. Today, Pat says oxtail is the most expensive he's ever seen it. — The demand for it is as high as it's ever been. To understand just how much the price has jumped, we visited chef Judith Ael at Swirl Wine Beastro in South Florida. She makes an oxtail ravioli that costs more than double what it used to. — When we first opened Swirl on the menu, it was under $20 for the dish. — Today, it costs $48. Oxtail was one of Judith's favorite dishes growing up as a child in Jamaica. — I can remember maybe around maybe 10 having oxtail. It was so good. Oh my goodness. It's always on an upscale family meal. For better holidays, you'll get some oxtail. People are coming over to your house on a Sunday, you know, you'll cook oxtail. — It wasn't until she moved to the US in 1986 that she realized just how inexpensive the cut of meat was outside of the island. — It was like a dollar and change. We were cooking oxtail at my sister's uh house because oh my goodness, oxtail is like it's like so cheap here. — But as the price of oxtail rises, she can barely make a profit from it. — There was a point where we were like, "Yeah, we're not putting on the menu. " So we had stopped serving it for for a while. Right now we have to cap it because how much can you sell, you know, ravioli for? But for now, I'm just making it out of love. — With a $48 oxtail ravioli dish, it's safe to say consumers are feeling the impact. — That's Jamaican comedian Marlon Palmer. In 2016, he sparked an online movement bringing awareness to rising oxtail prices with the hashtag make oxtail cheap again. It all started when he saw the price of an oxtail entree at his local Jamaican restaurant in Toronto start to rise. — I went to Albert's and uh I looked at the price and I was like this is not the normal price. And so I made a Instagram story or like a Snapchat or something and I was like you look at this $20 for a large oxill in a tin. What is that? And at the time, uh, Trump was running on his Make America Great Again campaign. So, I was like, "Make Oxdale cheap again. This is what we need to be campaigning for. " — The hashtag quickly garnered thousands of mentions all over social media with longtime Oxdale lovers sharing their experiences. — Through doing it, I realized how many people felt the same way, but just weren't saying anything. It's that sense of community. We're all in on the joke. We all know what's at stake here and we're treating it like this dire situation that's not dire, but to our community it's dire. — Business Insider found itself in the middle of the controversy. In 2023, our food page reposted a video about oxtail on Twitter, garnering over 36 million views and thousands of reposts. In the replies, oxtail lovers like Marlin tried their best to steer people away from their favorite food, jokingly claiming that consuming it could cause severe ailments and even death. — I kept putting like the vomit emoji and telling people yucky. Anytime someone would bring that up, I was like, "You eat that? " And like just making it seem grotesque cuz like I at a certain point propaganda is the only thing that's going to save us. We got to start lying to these people. I'm pretty sure that worked on a couple hundred people. Any little bit makes a difference, man. Any little bit. — But behind the jokes, there's still some real concern among OG Oxtail fans. — I think there's anger that it got out because we found a way to make what other people think was trash treasure. I think that's what really connects us to it. Like we had it in house for so long. Nobody knew how great this was and then the internet just propelled it to new heights. — But the debate isn't only about price. There's also the question of the right way to make oxtail. — Like new stuff like try new stuff, but after a while try new stuff automatically come back to the old stuff because not going to have that taste that what they looking for. No way. feels like a trend because like you see it in like oxtail tacos, oxtail syrup, oxtail cereal, and they have now remixed it 500,000 times into different concoctions that I do not approve of. I just it's a mess now. It's gone overboard. And that's part of why I think the price has gone up as well. — This way of thinking puts Judith and her oxtail ravioli in an awkward position. because I'm Jamaican chef. They have this expectation. Oh, we're going to a restaurant that is a Jamaican chef. Oh, they have oxtail on the menu. They're expecting it to be on the bone the traditional way. I worked in uh England, Wales, Switzerland. All of these experiences influence how I cook. How could I come, you know, just cook uh oxy the same old way? Of course, I'm going to find another way to cook it. To make the dish, she starts by trimming excess fat from the oxtail and browning it on all sides. The key to making oxtail tender is cooking it slowly at a low temperature in a flavorful stock. Once it's done, the meat is fall off the bone tender. Due to oxtail's long cooking time, making a batch of ravioli takes Judith 2 days. But Judith says she can't achieve the same flavor with any other cut of beef. — It had to be the oxtail. — Judith cooks the oxtail again for another 4 hours in more wine and beeftock. — That's going to cook down. And the reduction of this oxtail is what we're going to use as the filling for the ox for the ravioli. — When Judith first considered adding oxtail to the menu at her restaurant, ravioli wasn't her first choice. Her goal was to pay homage to her Jamaican heritage while also distinguishing herself as a chef. — I mean, there's a lot of Jamaican restaurants that you can go and get traditional Jamaican food. We want to set oursel apart. — It took years of trial and error to come up with this dish. Today, the oxtail ravioli is a customer favorite at Swirl. — We had to put it on the door. Home of the Oxtale ravioli. — While she is concerned about the price hikes, she says it shouldn't stop her or other chefs from creating innovative oxtail dishes. There will always be a chef who's going to try to take it to the next level. I've seen chefs uh smoke it and then braze it. Um, I've seen chefs who you slow smoke it for days and so it's fallen off the bone. I've had it, you know, be creative. Today, Pat Lefreda delivers oxtail to all kinds of chefs and restaurants, including high-end ones. Despite many people's fears, Pat insists there's still plenty of oxtail to go around. Unless there's some evolutionary issue with cattle, it's never going to disappear. — As long as the demand for oxid is there, there people are going to buy it. And people are buying at a higher price anyway. You know, they may not buy as much, but they're still buying it because it's like it's in our system at this point.

Harvesting acai is a dangerous job in Brazil. Workers climb thin palm trees deep in the Amazon rainforest. These berries have become one of the most popular so-called superfoods in the US. And they aren't cheap. One bowl can cost up to $15. And while the berry has exploded in popularity in recent decades, small farms like this haven't really been able to cash in. — To this day, most acai in Brazil is harvested by families on small-scale farms. But big plantations are on the rise, putting pressure on families like Lucas Noggeras and a way of life that goes back generations. So, how did this Amazonian fruit become so trendy? And what is the true cost for the people who have been harvesting it for generations? We met Lucas at the end of the 2021 harvest, but there were still some berries left on a few trees. His family's farm is roughly 70 mi from Bang, the capital of the state of Pra, which grows more than 90% of the acai produced in Brazil. The only tool they use to climb is a single piece of rope called a piconia. They used to be made of leaves. Today, Lucas's son, Luis Fernando, will go up. The trunks are so thin that climbers have to be lightweight. At the top they swing from the tree to reach multiple bunches. Going down can be dangerous, too, especially while carrying a large knife and holding an armful of branches. Dropping them could damage the fragile fruit. And the risks don't end at the climb. Lucas and his family harvested 53 baskets like these in 2021, earning them an income of about $950. That's as little as 20 cents per pound. Meanwhile, a pound of processed acai sorbet can sell for $7 or more in the US. Part of the issue is that Lucas has to sell his acai as soon as possible because the fruit goes bad fast. That leaves farmers who don't have processing machines with little leverage to negotiate. merchants bring the acai to bang by boat. It's a race against the clock to sell the fruit before it spoils. So, markets run overnight. The price of the baskets varies every day depending on the demand. — Most of the acai produced in the state stays in Brazil, but exports have skyrocketed, growing about 14,000% between 2011 in 2020. Some acai gets transported to processing facilities like North Acai. Every day, 22 tons of fruit are turned into frozen pulp, the acai that most people outside of Perra are familiar with. This is the stage where we see the biggest jump in price about 177%. Today, more than 70% of Brazil's acai exports end up in the States. The global market for is expected to reach nearly $2. 1 billion by the end of 2025. Acai's popularity took off in other Brazilian states in the 1980s when it became part of workout culture in Rio and S. Paulo. The bowls made regular appearances in this popular '90s soap opera that took place at a gym. Its high calorie content made it a perfect pre or post exercise food. And its antioxidants made it easy to brand a superfood. that came with claims that it can solve all sorts of health issues like obesity, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, strokes, hypertension, high risk for COVID 19, cognitive difficulties, sexual difficulties. — But nutritionists say this narrative has been blown out of proportion. — Wait a minute. One food can't do that, can it? No, of course not. Nonetheless, Americans were hooked and made all kinds of acai bowls, mixing in fruit, granola, honey, and more. But it's a far cry from the culture of the people who have eaten it for much longer. Indigenous people living in the Amazon have harvested and consumed acai for centuries, maybe even millennia, and it's still a staple food in the daily diet of people in Prair who eat it fresh with savory meals. Lucas was 12 when he started climbing acai trees and he still does 36 years later. In recent years, acai has also made headlines in American and Brazilian media for reports of children working in the industry. But farmers like Lucas say it's always been this way and that it's normal for everyone in the family to help out and learn the trade. Nowadays, Lucas owns this land along with 55 other families. These kinds of settlements are called kilomos or a kilola community. And many go back centuries. They were established by enslaved Africans and afro descendants who ran away into the jungle and started communities like this to survive. Many learned from indigenous people how to harvest and process native foods, including acai. The Brazilian government estimates there are nearly 6,000 kilom communities in the country. In a 2013 study found roughly 75% still lived in extreme poverty. Lucas's acai trees grow alongside different native trees and plants, but larger monoulture plantations that produce more fruit are on the rise. The amount of land used for these plantations has more than tripled since 2006. These plantations are often located far away from flood planes where acai trees naturally thrive. That means big producers have to irrigate their acai trees while farmers like Lucas rely on natural seasonal flooding from the nearby river. Some small producers have also been favoring acai trees over others, which could become an issue in the long run. And experts worry that as acai's popularity continues to grow, the cultural traditions of PRA and the Amazon could be lost. Acai is something Lucas and many people here take pride in. Don't spray it.

This factory in Sri Lanka produces more than 30,000 metric tons of coconut a year. But almost none of it stays in the country. It's exported to Europe, the US, and Canada. The demand for coconut products has exploded in recent decades with companies touting it as a superfood. US consumption of coconut oil has spiked nearly 30% since 2018. This company, Navic Mills, didn't even exist until 5 years ago. Today, it's one of the largest coconut processors in the country, making about $40 million a year selling coconut oil, cream, water, and milk. But feeding the globe's coconut obsession can be dangerous. Farmers like Shahan Madushanka climb 80oot trees with their bare hands and feet to harvest the fruit one by one. In the factory, workers brave spinning saws to shell thousands of coconuts a day. All because of the West's insatiable thirst for natural coconut products. But are there health benefits overhyped? — I don't think a superfood tag should be attached to any food because I think what it does is create consumer confusion. — We head to Sri Lanka to see how far producers are going to satisfy the globe's coconut craving. Coconuts have been a staple food in Sri Lanka for millennia. Today, it's one of the biggest producers in the world, growing roughly 2 1/2 million metric tons a year. But farmers face challenges to keep up with this pace. For one, trees take a while to grow, sometimes more than 6 years before they produce any coconuts. They can live up to a century, growing fruit every month and a half during their lifetime. To make sure they're constantly harvesting ripe fruit, farmers manage massive forests in rotation. Harvesting a new area every day means farmers can also inspect the palms for any pest infestation. White flies and Asian rhinoceros beetles are coconut palms's biggest enemies. These giant beetles burrow into the core and eat the nutrients. If a tree is too far gone, farmers have to burn and remove it to prevent the beetles from spreading. Farmers carry their picking tools as they head out to harvest. That stick is one way to reach the coconuts without putting anyone at risk. But often the only way to get the fruit is to climb. Shahan started scaling palms four years ago. — With only his hands and feet, he shimies up the tree. It takes him only two to three minutes to reach the top. Now he's 80 ft up with no rope to protect him. Shahan says he's never fallen, but a fall from this height could be deadly. He knows which coconuts are ready when he hears water sloshing around inside. They'll repeat this daunting climb on dozens of trees today. One tree yields up to 80 coconuts a year. Farmers gather them up for sorting and drying. The drier the coconut, the easier it is to peel off the inedible outer husk. Farmers earn under $5 a day, which is less than the average salary in the country. To bridge the gap, Navic Mills told us it covers the school fees for the farmer's children. They load the coconuts on trucks bound for Navic Mills's factory just up the road. This is the second sorting stage. Imports for coconut oil have surged across the west. So to keep pace, the company introduced these saws. They doubled the speed at which they could remove the fibrous coconut shells. But workers have to be careful. Flying pieces of coconut shells have nicked workers eyes before. In the main room, workers still peel the coconuts by hand. But peeling knives are no less dangerous. Ashoka Kumari peels about 2500 coconuts in a shift. Making less than 1 cent a coconut, Ashuka usually walks away with just under $10 a day. And just like farmers, it's less than an average salary in Sri Lanka. A team of inspectors comes through to check the quality. If they see any impurities, they'll pull those bad coconuts out. Meanwhile, another peeler slices open the fruit and dumps out the water. From this point on, machines will do the bulk of the work. Because of their high fat content, peeled coconuts spoil fast, so the company has to process them quickly. only 12 hours we can keep it otherwise you have to uh waste the product. — The company produces over a dozen coconut products from ice cream and water to desiccated coconut and curry infused milks. But oil and regular coconut milk are the company's best sellers. These machines press virgin coconut oil out of chunks and pump it into glass bottles. This line is making milk. Machines grate the meat into small flakes. Extract the milk and dispense it into cans. At this point, workers hop back into the process to inspect the sealed cans and move the racks into sterilizing machines. In Sri Lanka, coconut palms are known as the tree of life. They can feed a family of five for a century, and they're so important, it's illegal to cut one down before it matures. Coconuts make up roughly 15% of the calories Sri Lankans consume and earn the country over $800 million every year. The story of coconuts in Sri Lanka goes back thousands of years. It's said they originate from the Western Pacific, but floated to the Pacific Islands in India on ocean currents. People here long cherish coconuts because one fruit packs so much power. It has water, fiber to make rope, calorie rich meat, oil, and a hard shell ideal for crafts. It also had religious importance and was presented as an offering to Hindu gods. In the 16th century, merchants brought coconuts to the global stage. Spanish and Portuguese explorers coined the term coconut from their slang word for head because of the fruit's resemblance to a face. They spread the fruit across Africa and South America. In the early 1900s, bakers in the US and the UK started using desiccated coconut in their sweets. In the 2010s, Western countries co-opted coconuts as the newest superfood. Health gurus and wellness experts are looking beyond traditional American foods for things that are nutrientdense. — Companies and wellness influencers claimed the fruit could improve bone health and blood sugar, promote weight loss, and help slow Alzheimer's thanks to its antioxidants. — Yeah, folks are so into it because there's some big health claim attached to it. and manufacturers were quick to capitalize. Soon, coconut products weighed down shelves in health food stores across the US and Europe. Its water replaced Gatorade as a post-workout drink, and its pulp was turned into healthy ice cream. And coconut oil became a popular swap for other cooking oils because it has no cholesterol. But nutritionists say the promises the coconut craze was built upon aren't so straightforward. So now all of a sudden it means that coconut oil has some magical power. Therefore, we must all use it. When that's not actually the case because we don't have the research. It's interesting when you look at food databases, it's usually foods that everybody's familiar with. Foods that are outside of the quote unquote dominant norm are often not as well researched. — Coconut water does have lots of electrolytes and can be a natural replacement for sports drinks. It makes sense. All of the places that coconuts grow are tropical climates. It's hot. People sweat a lot, so it's naturally, you know, hydrating for those folks. — But when it's overprocessed or packed full of sugar, that benefit goes away. And coconut oil is also really fatty. 87% saturated fat to be exact, much higher than butter. And it has more calories, too. In 2017, the American Heart Association issued an advisory on saturated fats, warning coconut oil could increase bad cholesterol and cause cardiovascular events. — Yeah, if you're eating large amounts of coconut oil out of the blue, your body will let you know that it may or may not like it. — But Maya said that doesn't mean coconut oil has to be villainized. — There are some nutrients in coconuts that are really beneficial. You're going to get some vitamin C, some potassium, some fiber. — Remember, it has been used in cuisines around the world for thousands of years. It's just a matter of how you eat it. — What I would rather is that people are varying their oils and if the cooking application warrants coconut oil that they use it. I think it's completely fine to eat them. I, you know, if it's culturally relevant, go for it. Even if it's not and you want to try it, go for it. What I do say to people is don't expect a miracle cure from it. But all this health confusion hasn't stopped consumers from gulping down coconuts, allowing Sri Lanka to take its business well beyond its shores. While the country still eats roughly 75% of its own coconut production, big companies like this one have popped up solely to export the product. In just 5 years, Navic Mills has become one of the biggest coconut processors in Sri Lanka. Altogether, Navic Mills processes 30,000 metric tons of coconuts and 95% of it ends up abroad, mostly in European and North American countries. And the company has gone to incredible lengths to keep up with surging demand. It had to plant 20,000 more trees and hire dozens of new workers, — rebuilt a new plant, so expanding uh production line and fixing new machine. But coconut farmers aren't the only superfood producers feeling this squeeze. — Foods that originate outside of the US. There was a massive peak in interest in the last 10 to 15 years. There was a time when that was not a thing. — In Mexico, avocado farmers have formed vigilante groups to fight off cartels gunning for their valuable crops. Avocado prices jumped 129% in a decade when it became a favorite for millennials. I'm always weary of the next miracle food — because just like coconut, nutritionists are split on if these superfoods are actually as powerful as the marketing suggests. There is a particular way that we talk about wellness in the US and it's really from this Anglo-American Anglo-Uropean perspective and we don't know how to quantify or categorize things that fit outside of dominant wellness culture. — What's left out is the historical and cultural context of superfoods and the acknowledgement of the people left to bear the brunt of our health food obsessions. On the other end of every single thing that we put into our mouth is someone who's worked tirelessly to get it there.

The US imports over 2,000 tons of this bright green powder from Japan a year. This specific powder is the highest quality and most expensive version of matcha known as ceremonial grade. As the matcha frenzy reaches new heights in the US, more Western consumers are opting for this type of matcha over less expensive versions or matcha grown outside Japan. But with Japanese farmers struggling to keep up with demand, matcha shortages around the world, and prices soaring to new records, picky matcha drinkers might actually be making the problem worse. We do have some crazy machnos that come in, but these labels may not be as definitive as we think. — Anyone can label anything as ceremonial grade and use it as a marketing term. So, are people in the US drinking matcha all wrong? And is that the only reason why matcha is more expensive than ever? Matcha drinkers in the US typically think about the tea in two quality based categories. culinary grade, the lower quality version, and ceremonial grade, the higher quality one. But in Japan, the traditional classifications were completely different based on when the tea was served during a Japanese tea ceremony known as chanoyu. Kocha or thick tea was served at the beginning and usucha or thin tea would come at the end. For kocha, like a thick soup or like melted ice cream would be a good way to describe the consistency. It's really viscous. — Rebecca Corbett has been studying and practicing chaoyu for over 20 years. — Because of that viscosity and there's so much tea in there, you want it to be the highest quality blend that you can get. For us, practitioners whisked the matcha powder with more water, creating a lighter, frothier drink. We can think of the thin tea portion of a tea gathering as kind of the most informal and relaxed part at the end of the tea gathering. — For centuries, ceremonies like these were the primary way matcha was consumed in Japan. — Most people in Japan did not consume matcha very often. Its main consumption was among people in the tea practitioner community. It wasn't until the 20th century that people in Japan began consuming matcha more casually. It also became a popular flavoring in baked goods and desserts. But in the US, it was still nearly impossible to find. In the early 2000s, Japan exported just 1% of its tea. Matcha was always more expensive than other teas. Around this time, a pack of green tea bags in the US cost around three to$4, while a small tin of matcha could cost up to 10 times more. And the bold taste of matcha in its pure form was another barrier for Western drinkers. I've read a lot of newspaper articles and travel diaries. They're using phrases like green gr, bitter, unpalatable. They use pea soup as a common description in a not flattering way. But 2006 marked a turning point for matcha in the US. That's when Starbucks brought matcha to the masses through its green tea latte. Unlike its traditional preparation, this drink was sweetened, served with milk, and either served hot or iced. People knew Starbucks. I mean, there there's a built-in audience there. That's Rona Tisson, the North American tea ambassador for the Japanese brand Itto. The fact that they introduced matcha in a beverage that was more familiar to a lot of, you know, sweetened beverages. I would have to say that was probably the beginning that it really kind of went mainstream and widespread. In 2007, the term ceremonial grade matcha was coined in the West. According to Canadian brand Dough Matcha, it was their founder who came up with the category. It was created to differentiate it from culinary grade matcha, which is intended for cooking or baking with a stronger, slightly bitter flavor. Culinary tends to be much more older plant and not of the really high-grade tea leaf. The higher quality ceremonial-grade matcha is typically made from young tea leaves that come exclusively from the first harvest of the picking season. It's rich in the chemical elenine, which gives the tea a slight natural sweetness, making it better for drinking. Ceremonial grade matcha is typically priced higher than culinary grade matcha, costing anywhere from 20 to over $50 per ounce, while culinary grade matcha is typically under $20 per ounce. Matcha's popularity in the US continued to grow in the 2010s with Google searches for matcha beginning to rise more steadily around 2012. Itto n Rona Tissson's tea company rolled out its matcha love line in 2015. Even Business Insider covered the craze, releasing several videos about the bright green tea powder. I'm getting hungry. The power of social media is pretty phenomenal and it really re the outreach globally is amazing. Today, the US is the biggest importer of Japanese matcha, accounting for nearly 80% of the country's powdered green tea exports in 2024. Google searches for matcha reached an all-time high in 2025. There are even cafes dedicated solely to the green tea powder. You'll find it in almost everything on the menu at the New York City cafe Aayoko Matcha. Matcha lattes, matcha soft serve, and even gelato. Aoko Matcha has only been open since August 2025. Its owner, Isabella Pang, says business is booming as prices for matcha continue to climb. — Customers are really happy with it. It turned out better than I thought, actually. She uses only ceremonial grade matcha in all of her matcha desserts, which she says she sources directly from Japan. Sing come for the matcha latte specifically because they want to like taste all different machalis in the city. We do have some crazy matcha connoisseurs that come in and it's like this is super good or like this is a little bit too sweet. Ayoko's menu mainly consists of desserts with its matcha mochi parfait being one of the most popular. It starts with a base of matcha pudding and syrup. — So we do make our pudding in-house but it's very light. It doesn't taste sweet at all. — Then it's layered with matcha soft serve rice crisps more soft serve mochi balls and red bean paste. — Our gelato is our specialty. Right now we do have levels one through five. one being the most sweet and five is being the most bitter. So, personally, I like level three because it's right in the middle, but people that love matcha go straight to the level five. It's not just cafes like Aayokco Matcha fueling this recent matcha craze. Communities are forming in pockets of the internet, such as Matcha Talk, where matcha enthusiasts share recipes and tips. As I've always said, matcha is very versatile, but goodness, it's been sort of applied in so many different uh food products and beverages. But producing enough for matcha's growing fan base is becoming increasingly challenging. We first met Genturo Yamamoto back in 2022 on his over 180year-old farm in Kyoto. The region is responsible for 25% of Japan's production of tencha, the tea leaf from which matcha is made. The harvest begins in the spring when workers gather the young leaves used for ceremonial grade matcha. But it's more than just western categories putting a strain on Japanese supply. This is Gentaro's elaborate shading system designed to protect the leaves. A step that's perhaps become more important than ever. In 2024, intense heat waves damaged tea bushes in Kyoto. But even with these adjustments, He says his farm's yields took a hit. After the leaves are picked, Gentaro starts by steaming the tena leaves. This locks in their flavor and preserves their rich green color. He cools them with a leaf spreader and places them in a nearly century old furnace to dry. After drying, the leaves stems are removed and then they are prepared for grinding. Gentaro grinds his tench leaves using a handmade granite stone mill. This traditional method creates a fine powder that preserves the nutrients of the tencha. It takes Gentaro an hour to grind just 40 g of matcha. Another issue plaguing Japan's tenure production is the shrinking number of tea farmers available to grow it. With most tea farmers in their 60s and 70s and a few young growers like Gentaro joining the field, there aren't enough new farmers to take over existing tea fields or expand production. These issues have created a shortage that's driving the price of matcha upward. The average price of tench reached 8,235 yen or $56 per kilogram in April 2025, the highest it's ever been. These producer price hikes trickled down to distributors like Itto, the company Rona works for. In September, it increased its prices on some of its premium grade matcha products, as well as double the price of its ceremonial grade matcha. We've unfortunately had to it's becoming difficult to get matcha these days. — On top of everything, new US tariffs threaten to make Japanese matcha even pricier for American consumers. Isabella is also thinking about price increases for Aayoko matcha in New York City. During August and September, we stocked up a lot cuz we knew we were going to have a big inventory, but it definitely has impacted our goods. A lot of our pricing it is more expensive especially with the tariffs happening as well. Therefore, our gelatoes and our lattes and our parfets will unfortunately have to increase a little bit throughout time. — Even with prices reaching record highs, global consumers continue to demand ceremonial grade. — That's what gives it that like smooth umami rich taste and as well as like that bright color that you see in our gelatoes and lattes. But matcha purists like Rebecca see things differently. If you're using in a beverage that has a lot of other flavors added or and other sweeteners in particular, then it's okay for that matcha to be more bitter and to be a lower grade and cheaper matcha. You don't need to be buying the highest quality. To me, the analogies I would give would be buying a really expensive bottle of French red wine and adding fruit and sugar to it to make sangria. So, I think especially in this period where we're seeing a matcha shortage and that the producers are struggling to keep up with demand, I think it's really important to just be mindful of that and not wasteful of a product. She also worries that people may be paying premium prices for ceremonial matcha that is not actually of higher quality. So it basically means that it's like the wild west. It's totally unregulated. As global demand for matcha puts strain on Japan supply, new players are also entering the market. China has surged ahead over the past two decades and is now the world's top producer. I know that they are actually inviting many of the Japanese matcha makers to uh really learn how to make matcha properly and learn the expertise and all this. Chinese matcha sells for less. But does a label or country of origin really determine quality. We decided to do a blind taste test with some colleagues. I have tried matcha before. The cafes I go to usually have some sort of fun flavor going on like a strawberry shortcake matcha or even recently like I had a banana bread one. — I am a bit of a matcha hater. Tried to like it, but even with sugar, it tastes a little swampy to me. Unfortunately, I have tried matcha before. It was when the matcha craze first came to like America. So, a lot of years ago, I had it and I went, I'm not sure if this is for me. So, I'd probably say this one looks the most appetizing to me. — Looks yummy, but I bet it's not. Um, but it looks like a yummy green juice that I would enjoy. I don't have to drink all of this, right? Okay. It's actually not as bad as I was expecting. Maybe it tastes more a little bit like grass, but like it's very light. So that one definitely has like that bitter earthy taste to it. And then there's like a slight like floral flavor to it which is really nice. Oh, actually that wasn't bad at all. I mean it tastes like tea. That tastes good. It just tastes like a very herbal tea. I guess I like it, huh? Yeah. I keep sipping it. So, I guess I like it. I'm coming back for it. That one's much stronger. Um, okay. Yeah, that one tastes like pawn scum, which I've never had, but I imagine that's what it tastes like. This one's a little bit more earthy, almost like just plantlike. And I kind of missed the floral flavor that I was getting from this one over here. See, that tastes like grass. Um, which is what I was expecting. It's extremely bitter. It didn't immediately repulse me, so that's good. Um, yeah, it tastes spinachy. It tastes drinkable. Afterwards, I'm sitting with like a sour like a weird sour taste on my tongue. It kind of feels like it left a film of an unflattering taste. Yeah, this one This one's not doing much at all. It's definitely the lightest tasting. It tastes like almost nothing. This is definitely the most subtle flavor of the three. And yet, I dislike it the most for some reason. — Definitely the lowest. This is in the middle. And this is the highest. Okay, my ranking is three, two, one. — I would say this would definitely be my first choice for the matcha latte. I think with the bitterness of it, the sweetness of like the latte would come through nice. — The results are in and all three participants chose the Chinese ceremonial matcha as their favorite. Two ranked Japanese ceremonial as second with one choosing it as the worst and two out of three ranked Japanese culinary grade in last place. — Like these two def they have way more flavor with them. They're just a more pleasurable drinking experience. You can tell that they were made to be drink. — This is definitely like if you're a fan of matcha, this is what I would think of when I think of matcha and it tastes the most matcha e. While preferences may vary, Japan still sets the standard for ceremonial matcha. — Hopefully maybe after a year and hopefully matcha powder will be lowered a little bit so it's basically more affordable for everyone. — Isabella's customers also say they're willing to spend a little extra to get their matcha fix. — Yeah, I would definitely still keep coming back cuz I just feel like you just can't really like top the quality here. Like I just love like the richness, the earthiness that come through when I eat like the level three match. — I think even today it is considered a bit of a luxury product. I think people would really don't mind spending the extra money to have special matcha. — In Japan, officials are working to increase matcha production by encouraging tea farmers to shift their focus from other types of teas to grow matcha in order to meet the demand. The country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries is providing subsidies to help tea farmers transition to growing tenia. And Gentaro says he's seeing more and more young people taking up tea farming. But even with these ongoing efforts, a single season of climate stress can have long-term effects on the market. Once a tentia plantation is damaged, it can take up to 5 years to restore it to full production and meet soaring demand. And Gentaro believes climate events like these are far from over. I would like people to kind of respect that and understand that um and be mindful in their consumption. The time and effort it takes and the attention to creating that for this beautiful bowl of matcha green tea is really something that needs to be

respected and honored. 27,000 tons of yuzu are grown here in Japan every year. Compare that to here in the US where there are only a handful of yuzu farms growing a fraction of that. The number of yuzu menu items in the US grew 33% between 2016 and 2021 and a French flavor company named Yuzu 2025's flavor of the year. — I think chefs really love how different it is from a regular lemon or a lime or an orange. With this kind of supply imbalance, countries will typically strike an international trade deal. But none of Japan's yuzu bounty will reach the US legally. And because there's not much fresh yuzu grown in the US, prices for the fruit have skyrocketed to around $20 a pound. So if Japan has so much yuzu, why can't it meet US demand? And why is American yuzu so expensive? I've been going to Japan a long time, so I love, you know, the citrus. — Robbie Cook is the executive chef of Coral Amocas in New York City. — I do a smoked salt with the yuzu juice on that. Right now, winter time goes very well with a wild yellow tail. So, with cooking it in a broth into the ponzoo. Throughout his career, he's been able to compare Japanese and domestic yuzu. — The ones from Japan have a little more sweetness and uh that orangey flavor compared to like lemony flavor. Thing was nice about what get from Japan is they're like really massive. So, you get much more surface area. You can peel your own skins, freeze them, and save for a later date. Right now, the only legal way to experience fresh Japanese yuzu is by leaving the US. Here in Japan, it's everywhere. Sorti Farms in Ki Prefecture sells its fresh fruit for as little as 10 cents a pop. In the past, its yuzu has gone for over $3. 52% of yuzu grown in Japan comes from the Kchi Prefecture. Isashi Sangji took over his family's 10acre citrus farm when he was 31. Some of the yuzu trees here are more than 100 years old. Only a few fruits will be high enough quality to sell whole, the most expensive form. The rest will be juiced and the peels used for essential oils. Senori Farm separates the yuzu intended for sale from juicing and sorts it by size and quality. forchech. One blemish too many can disqualify a fruit from being sold whole. Japan is known for its luxury fruit, which prioritizes a perfect aesthetic above all else. These premium pieces can be sold at a much higher price than the average offering. To keep every fruit as pretty as possible, Sashi and his team of four harvest by hand. Sashi says current technology doesn't take the Yuzu tre's huge thorns into account which can damage the fruit but he has hopes for a more automated future. About four out of Sorti Farms 10 acres are dedicated to yuzu. The fruit accounts for 40% of sales. So, it's important to keep it as healthy as possible. But the question of why all this yuzu from Japan won't legally make it to the US can be answered in part by this imperfect green piece of fruit. But citrus trista virus isn't the only threat to America's $3 billion citrus industry. Another infection, citrus greening disease, was first detected in 2005. Since then, citrus production in Florida has plummeted 75%. The disease is incurable. Once a tree is infected, the only way to deal with it is to destroy it. Some markets, like the European Union, do allow yuzu imports from Japan under strict conditions that keep prices skyhigh. One German sushi restaurant told Business Insider it purchased a case of 12 Japanese yuzu for €7 a piece. The United States on the other hand does not allow any imports of fresh yuzu from Japan. — It might be touchy but you know I do believe some chefs are getting from Japan. — Records from the USDA's animal and plant health inspection service show only rare instances of smuggled yuzu. The most recent being in 2016. But these records only tell us when smuggled yuzu was found. To start the process of lifting the ban, a trading partner would first have to request market access. Something the USDA told VI hasn't happened yet. Fresh yuzu seekers in the states must buy their fruit from one of the few US producers like the familyrun orchard flavors by bumi. But local grown supply is limited, making it expensive. Flavors by Bumi sells its yuzu for about $20 a pound compared to Sangoji Farms $260. — To the best of our knowledge, we are the only growers of the yuzu or uh yuzu in general in the northeast. Nobody else does it. — It wasn't a choice to grow it in New Jersey. We live here, so there wasn't anywhere else to grow it. — Since filming with BI, Flavors by Bumi has moved its East Coast production to Pennsylvania. Sema Vivc and their daughter Simron are the family behind the business. — I'm 16 years old and sometimes one of them says, "Oh, the Yuzu are like our first borns cuz they were around before I was. " So, yes, I have been surrounded by citrus pretty much my whole life. The Mollik started growing yuzu 20 years ago, but they had to work out some kinks before starting their business in 2017. — We did put a couple of trees in the ground outside. They promptly died. — There was no information available 20 years ago when we first started working with the yuzu. After tinkering around for a good decade, we decided to go commercial and uh started working with Michelin star restaurants and have been doing so for the last 7 years now. — Because the east coast climate isn't ideal for growing yuzu, a greenhouse was pivotal to the company's success. — We can control the climate, the feeding, the beneficial insects, the nutrition, everything is controlled. The greenhouse also adds a layer of protection from diseases and pests. At the same time, greenhouse space is Flavors by Boomie's biggest roadblock to increasing supply. — The access to good greenhouse space is always a challenge cuz we can't expand without building green houses. There's always this challenge to find the right land, the right space to do all this. Scaling requires more labor from Simron, the farm's resident grafting expert. — We have close to about, I would say, 3 to 4,000 trees. — Since yuzu trees grown from seed take about 18 years to start producing fruit, most new yuzu trees, even in Japan, are created through grafting. The process involves attaching a budding yuzu stem to the root system of a different, easier to grow citrus tree. Essentially the way a successful graph works is you want um the original tree to kind of absorb the graft and then be able to uh grow that tree going further. You don't want it to continue growing its own self per se. This is a grafted yuzu tree. Um this part right here is the original plant and um this is where the graft was done right here. This graft was done about 2 years ago and the tree is already producing fruit, but it will still be a few years before it's fully grown. These are definitely going to take a bunch of time somewhere between another seven and 8 7 to 8 years to get somewhere along that size or maybe even along this size. — Growing enough fruit is one thing, but providing quality fruit is another. Fresh yuzu does not have a very long shelf life. couple of weeks at best when it's fully ripe because it tends to lose its juice content and tends to start coming drier in nature. — So even if they could import it, many chefs would still pay a premium for domestic yuzu, especially when it's grown right next door. — I source locally. Like they tend to be much fresher here, you know, from travel time. You know, Vivec's just such a great guy. Like I'd rather support him and then always use his citrus, which is great. Chef Robbie was one of the Mollik's very first customers even before they established their business. — I think Vivx is more comparable to Japan, especially later in the season when they do get bigger and the more orange comes out to it. — Robbie says frozen yuzu can't compare with the flavor of the fresh fruit. — This we can buy all year round. Uh stays frozen. Similar flavor profile, but I'd say less floral notes, less freshness. And like I said, the juice tends to be like really punchy. — But for Japan's yuzu farmers, juicing is one of the only ways to access the US market. Yuzu juice can be imported from Japan because processing removes the pathogens, diseases, and pests that whole fruits carry. At the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives Processing Center, where Sen Koji Farms and other producers juice their yuzu, 10 squeezing machines are kept behind glass. The skins are processed with a slicer. Yuzu cocktails, sauces, and seasonings might feel trendy in the US, but the citrus goes back hundreds of years in Japan. My favorite thing is the yuzu bath that um in Japan you can take on winter solstice. The cultural significance that exists in Japan doesn't exist over here. — According to Data Essentials, menu adoption cycle, Yuzu is in the adoption stage, which is all about growing an ingredients fan base. And the world's zest for yuzu seems to be increasing. Mon, a French flavor company, has named Yuzu the 2025 flavor of the year. Mon has a history of predicting trends and influencing menus around the world and market segments like the yuzu based source panoo and yuzu essential oil are expected to grow. While it's safe to say it's a trend in the US flavors by bumi seems to be making a bet that yuzu is here to stay. The Marx are currently expanding their business to California. We have close to about I would say another 10,000 trees in California of different varieties. — This way the company can shorten the travel time and provide even fresher fruit to chefs on the West Coast. — We would love to process at some point in the future. Right now we are just producing fresh fruit and supplying directly to our clients and that's it. The citrus has a way to go before ubiquity outside of Japan, but it seems

to be a matter of time. This is a mango steeen. If you're unfamiliar with this tropical fruit, that might soon change because the demand for its flavor is skyrocketing. Just look at one of the 44. 7 million Tik Tok posts with the hashtag mango steeen fruit. In India, the largest producer of the fruit in 2022, a kilo of mango steeen costs $4. But in the US, just one fruit can go for $6. Even the saplings the nursery grows from the seeds of unsellable mango steeen are flying off the shelves. The global demand is so high that farmers in India are doing everything they can to grow more, including wiping their farms over the produce to plant more mango steeen trees, all for a fruit that couldn't be legally imported into the US from Asia until 2007. But stateside vendors told Business Insider they've been finding ways to get their hands on the fruit for decades. So, does demand go beyond Tik Tok worthy visuals? And why is this purple fruit so expensive? Some describe mango steeen as sweet and tangy with notes of lychi, peach, and strawberry. Others can't quite figure out how to describe it. — It's an emotion. If you eat, you will understand. I can't explain the taste. Street vendors in New York City like Lee have been selling mango steam for decades, even when it was contraband. In the early 2000s, a kilo could cost about $120 in New York, a little over $9 for a single fruit. Part of the reason for that staggering rate was a total ban on mango steeen grown outside of Central America and the Caribbean. Mango steeen are mainly grown in Southeast Asia. But until 2007, the USDA restricted imports, fearing pests like the Asian fruit fly would harm US agriculture. Even so, Lee says he found ways to get a hold of some. Thanks to the lift on the import ban, more mango steeen are reaching the US, which has lowered the price. Today, Lee is selling a kilogram for $22. But other vendors charge as much as $78. And as more mango steeen have made their way to the US, vendors have also seen demand grow. It's not just an American phenomenon. As global demand keeps rising, mango steam farmers in Asia are doing everything they can to increase production. One way farmers are trying to meet that demand is by simply growing more. Merlin Mudhida nursery in Kerala, South India decided to cut down its other fruits in favor of mango steins. — Right now we are cutting all coconuts are we are only promoting this mango stein because we have profit in this that much demand we have right now. Mango steeen currently make up 50% of the farm's profits. So Manu says it's the right investment. — Future is fruitful. I feel like that. — Other farmers like Shajju are catching on too. This year I have just one plant which gave me fruit for almost 10,000 rupees worth fruit about 40 kilo I sold. So I thought why not? I'm taking 120. I want to plant these saplings the best possible way and I want to make it for a commercial purpose. — He won't be able to capitalize on mangoes from those trees anytime soon. It takes up to 10 years for a mangoeen tree to bear fruit. They need a warm tropical climate with high humidity and slightly acidic soil. That's why they're mainly produced in South and Southeast Asia. Once the fruit does grow, the farm tries to ensure pickers don't miss a single ripe mangoeen. Badu has been picking mango stains at the farm for 35 years. During the peak season of June and July, harvesters like Badu climb 40ft trees in hopes of finding the best mango steeen considered first grade. First grade mango steeen are 4 to 8 cm in diameter with a purple or nearly black outer shell and a bright white fleshy fruit underneath. It's a delicate dance as the climbers race against the clock to pick mango steeen before they overripen or fall, ensuring no fruit goes to waste. pickers rotate through sections of the grove quickly to control the quality of their product and prevent mango stains from falling in between harvests. And if one falls, it will quickly lose its sought after sweet and tangy taste and become inedible. — This one is a fell down fruit. I think fell down before 2 or 3 days because it's already a as a stone. We can't open it. — Even if a fruit on the ground isn't rock hard, they still won't sell it. Mango steeen can spoil within days of harvesting. So there's a chance it'll go bad before reaching the customer. But every mango steeen they do pick has a predetermined destination. According to Manu, whose father started the mango steeen farm. The destination guides harvesters in choosing which mango steeen to pick. Nearly a third of the harvest is reserved for direct customers who come to the farm to buy their mango steam in smaller quantities. The darkest, ripest mango steeen are sold to them because they need to be eaten immediately. Another third is purchased wholesale by other retailers. They pay 350 rupees a kilogram or around $4. 17. These buyers seek less ripe, lighter purple mango steeen that can withstand transport times. The final third goes to middlemen, including exporters who sell to other countries. The further manu has to send the mango steam, the more expensive they get. Shipping the mango steams by air is five times as expensive as ground transportation, which factors in to the final price. While only certain climates are suitable for farming prolific mangoeen trees, farmers can't depend on high yields every year. If a tree produces lots of fruit one year, it will produce less the next, causing production to vary in cycles. Last year, Manu's family farm made 10 million rupees or about $119,000 in revenue from its harvest. This year, Manu expects a third of that. He says regardless of fluctuating profits, his family continues to benefit from mango steeen's surprising success. While Merlin Mutadan nursery doesn't have an export license yet, other farmers in Asia who do have to irdiate their mango steam before they reach the US market. Iradiation is when the fruit is exposed to ionizing radiation to eliminate harmful bacteria or microorganisms. But irradiation doesn't come cheap. The fruit must be shipped to either a local irradiation agency or one in the United States, adding to transportation costs. From farm to table, the expenses stack up. Mango aicionados like Stefan Lynn bear the brunt of that cost. — I'd say it's more of like a treat. Um, it would be more like a once in a while thing. Maybe like once a month or whatnot. If it was cheaper, I'll probably play go out of my way war to get it. But I do wish it was like a dollar or so per fruit. — People are willing to shell out for treats like mango steeen, especially in the United States where 57% of fruit consumers are interested in trying exotic fruits. Mangoes are known as the queen of fruit after a rumor that Queen Victoria loved them so much she offered nighthood to anyone who would bring some to her. Today's consumers agree. The global market for Mangostein is growing at an annual rate of 3. 6% and is projected to reach up to 658 million by 20130. But this growth is relatively new. When Manu's father, Merlin Mutadon, grew up eating mango steeen from a tree his grandfather planted over 100 years ago, it wasn't a viable business. for He didn't make much money from it initially. But last year his mango steeen sold for almost 18 times that amount. Merlin started off with 80 mango steam trees and now he and his sons look after 1,000 and counting. All the new generation peoples are not into farming. I have a message like uh you all go for this kind of farming and if you have a good marketing skill also you can get a

huge success from this. This grain has been nicknamed the gold of the Andes. Most of it comes from Peru where around 100,000 tons are produced every year. The popularity of quinoa exploded over the past decade, transforming the fortunes of farmers who have been harvesting it for generations. Unfortunately, those good years may be coming to an end. Other countries have increased quinoa production, driving down prices, and shifting weather patterns are threatening yields. But quinoa is a superfood with more than 3,000 varieties, even though you'll only find a handful of them at the supermarket. So, can the people who brought their staple food to the world help it adapt to an uncertain future? People across the Andes have been eating quinoa way before it hit the shelves at gourmet markets. For centuries, Peruvians have ground the grain to make flour and ferment chicha, a popular drink. Quinoa was sacred to the Inca, who called it the mother grain. That's because it grew well under harsh conditions and flourished in areas where other crops struggled. The grain has adapted as weather patterns have changed in recent years, but growing it is still a struggle. — Ignasio is one of around 68,000 quinoa producers in Peru. He's been out in the fields with his family since he was just 10 years old. The season to plant quinoa starts at the end of the summer. Workers gather early in the morning and they pass around handfuls of cocoa leaves. Then they call to Patchamama or Mother Earth to help them get the job done quickly. Ignosio says the plant acts as a mild stimulant that gives them strength. Agnosio and his family sew the seeds after the soil has been harrowed and fertilized. About 7 months later, they harvest the crop by hand. Then they cut the branches and remove the edible parts of the grain. They shake the grain to remove any leftover dirt and then transfer the quinoa to a small warehouse. About a decade ago, Ignasio and his family would have traveled across the country to sell their quinoa. But that's now the job of Copane Cabana, a cooperative that represents more than 600 farmers in southern Peru. Representatives from cooperatives like Usabio visit the farms to inspect the grains. The cooperatives pay farmers like Ignasio about $1. 50 per kilo. about 1,200 tons of quinoa are processed every year at the cooperative facilities. Once the quinoa reaches their warehouse, workers thoroughly wash it twice to remove a bitter chemical called saponin. They split the quinoa into categories, remove any impurities, and then package it. It'll make its way overseas. The cooperative says it exports to the US, the European Union, and Japan. In the US, the product has become increasingly popular. America imports about a third of all the world's quinoa. But it wasn't always this way. Quinoa used to be mostly unknown outside of the Andes. — But it all began to change in 2009 when the Peruvian government started establishing free trade agreements. It became easier for companies to export to the US and beyond. Over the next few years, commerce between Peru and the US reportedly boomed. Word spread about the nutritious superfood that was gluten-free and high in protein. — This was when stuff like the keto diet were taking off. And there was this kind of this conventional wisdom that, hey, look, among all of those grains that you can be eating, quinoa probably packs the strongest punch in terms of protein. The United Nations even declared 2013 the international year of quinoa to celebrate the ancestral practices of the Indian people. — Basically shining a big bright spotlight on quinoa as something that people should consume for their health and that really led to the whole thing. — The average price of quinoa in Peru almost doubled between 2012 and 2014. And it wasn't just producers who benefited. The rise in quinoa sales helped locals who didn't even work with the crop. — There was probably some kind of trickle down effect in the economy where the quinoa price rise led to the people who were selling it being significantly better off and spending some of those funds on the economy. — In 2011, almost 80% of the country's quinoa was produced in the region of Puno. But farmers in other parts of the country tried to cash in, too. Some reportedly relied on chemical fertilizers to cultivate the grain. In 2014, Peru set a record for quinoa production, but trouble lay ahead for Peruvian farmers. For centuries, the grain had mostly been harvested in the Andes because it thrives in high altitudes. But quinoa farmers started popping up in other parts of the world. I think globalization is a double-edged sword in a case like this. These households can benefit from the global demand for that product. But it also means that it has really pushed other regions of the globe to experiment with growing quinoa themselves. — The market was flooded with quinoa. That caused prices to plunge by the end of 2015. Farmers in Peru reportedly began to struggle and some had to sell livestock to survive. Others held on to their quinoa hoping that prices would rise again. But by 2020, the price of quinoa in Peru had dropped to about half of its 2014 high. Meanwhile, farmers in Peru are producing more quinoa than ever. But the types sold in supermarkets represent just a fraction of the 3,000 varieties that can be harvested here. Farmers would traditionally cultivate different types of quinoa to make sure that at least some thrived if weather conditions were harsh. But some have abandoned this practice to focus on the most lucrative strains. And experts worry this may mean losing many varieties of the ancient crop. That's why many are brought here to the National Institute of Agricultural Innovation. Some of those less common strains could have uses beyond food. says he would eventually like to sell baked goods like cookies made of quinoa

but for now he has to focus on wet cells. Every day, workers pack the walls of this mountain with powerful explosives. All to extract one thing, Himalayan pink salt. The CA mine in Pakistan has the largest pink salt deposits in the world. Some of these raw blocks weigh up to 800 kilos, too heavy to lift by hand. Most of the salt ships to Europe and the US, where it is often branded as a healthy product, selling for up to 30 times the price of regular white salt. But reports suggest that it has high levels of heavy metals and microplastics. Still, as the world's appetite for pink salt keeps growing, how is a single mountain range powering this global industry? As Mahmud gets his three sons ready for school every day before heading out to the mines that hold the coveted Himalayan pink salt. for the salt doesn't actually come from the Himalayas which are about 250 km east of here but from the lower altitude Potohar plateau in Punjab province. With two decades of experience, ASF is now a supervisor responsible for the safety of the miners. Inside about 40 km of tunnels connect 17 levels that are divided into chambers. First, experienced miners read the walls. They're looking for high quality salt. Engineers Geological Survey. After finding the deposits, they start drilling holes about 4 ft deep and pack them with explosives using just their bare hands. A single spark or flame at this point could turn the chamber into an inferno. Then workers add the fuse wire which snakes through the rock giving them just enough time to clear the area. As if moves away to another chamber, but he still hears the explosion loud and clear. After 30 minutes, they cautiously make their way back through the tunnels. Miners aren't allowed to extract everything. A lot of the rock is used for structural support so the chambers don't collapse. It takes workers about 2 hours to load the tractor trolleys mostly by hand. Every year they harvest close to 400,000 tons of salt from the mountain range. — But that's just a fraction of the reserves found here. Even at current extraction rates, this salt is expected to last for centuries. The CRA salt mine is owned by the government which leases out sections to private companies like Salt. As has worked with them since he was 20. The company pays him a salary of about 100,000 rupees a month or $350. That's above the average monthly wage for unskilled workers in this region. Alhamdulillah. In fact, locals like ASF have depended on the ca mine for generations. Geologists say the salt formed here around 600 million years ago when ancient seas evaporated, leaving behind thick mineral deposits. Its signature pink hue comes from trace amounts of iron oxide, the same compound that makes rust red. The more iron it contains, the deeper the pink. So, the salt can range from pale blush to dark red. Legend says that around 326 BC, during Alexander the Great's expedition to the Indian subcontinent, his horses uncovered the deposits after they began licking salty rocks along the trail. But industrial scale mining started here in the 1870s when the British colonized the region. Pakistan gained independence in 1947 and took ownership of the salt mines. But most of the work is done by private companies like itak salt. They process the rocks at this factory in Lahore about 280 km away. Here workers like Amir Raslam start their day by suiting up with protective gear. long. First, workers evaluate the raw blocks and sort them by color. Then, they check for any remaining gunpowder and chip it off. They also scan the rock for natural cracks. Some pieces can weigh up to 100 kilos, so Arm says they have to be handled with caution. That's why workers cut down the largest slabs first. But as the size shrinks, their hands get closer to the blade and the risk increases. As the diamond tipped edge slices through in seconds. Today they're working on an order for Himalayan salt lamps. They drill a hole in the center which throws up salt fumes. Over time, those particles can collect in the lungs, making it harder to breathe. To stay safe, new hires also have to undergo three months of training. Hardwork. These days, the factory has even automated some parts of the process to increase production. It can now handle nearly 350 metric tons of salt a day. The weight of a fully loaded Boeing 747 jumbo jet, and demand has only been skyrocketing over the years for everything from bath salts to lamps used in aroma therapy and edible salt. The finished products are stacked, wrapped, boxed, labeled, and shipped around the world to more than 80 countries. In some US grocery stores, a container of Himalayan pink salt sells for about $10, but a much larger jar of regular table salt can cost just $1. It's often more costly because of how it's branded as a more natural and healthier alternative to regular table salt. Influencers claim it can regulate blood sugar, improve sleep, and detoxify the body. But scientists say there's no solid evidence behind those claims. In fact, one recent study shows that Himalayan pink salt contains higher amounts of microplastics than other rock salts with the contamination happening at the processing and packaging stage. Other reports show that it contains heavy metals like lead, mercury, and arsenic that can be toxic even in small quantities. — I made a shocking discovery about pink Himalayan salt. — On top of that, there are also many fake products out there that add pink dye to regular salt and sell it at premium prices. — It looks like foundation that I can put on my face. Still the people who work with this salt continue to believe in those healing properties. and half. — Since 2018, the global market for Himalayan salt has grown steadily and is expected to reach almost 700 million in 2030. But Pakistan's annual exports are valued at only a fraction of that. That's because most of the profits in this industry are made later in the supply chain when the salt is turned into products. And for years, Pakistan wasn't actually doing that. It lacked the equipment to grind and refine it to international standards. So exporting raw salt became an easier option. Most of it was shipped at low prices to India where it was processed and sold to western markets as a premium product, sometimes even labeled as made in India. Pakistan saw little of the profit. But in 2019, political tensions between the two countries escalated over control of the Kashmir region. Pakistan suspended bilateral trade with India, cutting off a major export route for raw salt. So local companies started processing the salt themselves. But those early workshops weren't as modern or safe as they are today. We filmed at one 6 years ago. There we saw some workers handling the same sharp equipment without gloves. Fine salt fumes filled the air coating the machines, the floors, and even the workers faces. Not many of them wore masks. Despite the risks, many workers still value this job. Because CRA isn't just a salt mine, it's a national attraction. Bringing in about 250,000 tourists every year. — A source of pride for many who work in the industry. Meanwhile, at the mine, ASF's 8-hour shift is finally over. So, he bonds with co-workers over a cup of tea and a melancholy song. But his spirits are anything but defeated. Tomorrow he looks forward to another day inside this mind. adventure. Gulabi, Himalayan pink salt.

The Dubai chocolate bar started off as a pregnancy craving. I had this idea of creating a dessert chocolate bar with different textures, different flavors. Sara Hammuda never expected it to become such a viral trend with thousands of businesses from restaurant chains like Shake Shack to local bakeries launching spin-offs all over the world. You — can really feel the crunch in it and it's not super sweet either. — Those who are making some of the key ingredients like kafi and pistachio cream are also seeing a boom. sales grew like 1,800%. Which is pretty crazy from just one trend, from one chocolate bar. — So, how did a chocolate bar that's made and sold exclusively in Dubai turn into a global trend? — Oh, wow. Look at that. — S Hammuda was craving Middle Eastern desserts like konaf when she had the idea for Dubai chocolate. Kappa was something that my mom used to, you know, cook at home and it was all about bringing those kind of flavors back to life and in different ways. — So in 2021, she and her husband invented a bar called Can't Get Kafi of It. — We were selling from the house, relying a lot on word of mouth. And then um came Maria, lovely girl, who reached out and she did a video of eating a can't get can of bar. That video, which has been viewed more than 100 million times, transformed their business. — There was just a queue of riders outside wanting. We had no chocolate, like nothing at all. At the same time, there's like thousands and thousands of people asking us to deliver to Argentina or like Mexico or like China. — Now, Fixed Dessert Chocoliers makes more than 500 bars a day by hand. and they're sold just for a few hours through one delivery app in the UAE. A 200 gram bar sells for around $18. That's about double the price of Cadbury Fruit and Nut. — Seeing people from around the world doing their own versions, um whether it's kids, adults, it's just been insane. — And jumping on the trend appears to be safe from a legal perspective. The name Dubai Chocolate isn't registered because it's considered a generic or geographic term. Under most trademark laws, location-based product names can't be owned. That's why saying Dubai chocolate is kind of like saying New York cheesecake or French baguette. On top of that, recipes aren't protected as intellectual property unlike books and art. The only way to guard them is to keep them a secret. So while Fix is the original creator, other businesses like Lind and Trader Joe's are legally free to come up with their own versions and sell them as Dubai style bars. And that's what Buli is doing in Turkey. The company says they were the first introduced the bar in the country on an industrial scale. At this factory, they're making 1 and a2 million pieces of chocolate or 50 tons every day. I mean, I can't even imagine that. But sometimes my job is a lot of fun cuz I've just been eating chocolates all day long. — Jose and Denise Axo is the second generation owner of Bulgi and came up with the recipe for their Dubai chocolate along with his sister. — After eight unsuccessful trials, in the ninth trial, we made it. Now we are producing that recipe. Currently it is the most popular category of our portfolio. — Just a few months after launching in June 2024, sales soared 400%. And to meet demand, this factory has been heavily automated. First high-tech cameras check if the molding trays are clean — that you can see the particle size and also the shape and everything. Everything can be detected. Then molds are heated up to around 78° F. — Otherwise, it would be uh impossible to spread the chocolate. — The chocolate and pistachio filling are deposited in what Denise calls a one-shot system. — Most of our competitors tend to use lower amounts of pistachios or artificial flavors, aromas, colorings, but in our chocolate, it is only the pistachio that colors and flavors the product. The filled molds go through a vibration machine that spreads the mixture evenly and removes air bubbles. Finally, a cooling tunnel drops the product's temperature to 57° F. Then the chocolates are sent off to another floor for packaging. They've got spheres, bars, and gift boxes and boxes that are taller than me. Exports are a big part of the business. About 60% of the chocolate is shipped to 72 countries, including the US, where it's sold at Amazon, Walmart, and local grocery stores. In the beginning, it was a super hype in the Turkish market. Then the trend is shifted to European part of the world and now it is super trendy in the US. — Now they have at least five different flavors of the bar. Despite the variations, the chocolate bowl she uses always remains the same. It comes in liquid form from Barry Calib, a Swiss Belgian company which is the biggest chocolate maker in the world. Here it's stored in these giant tanks. — It smells super delicious. Like very creamy chocolate. Yeah. And this one it contains three tons. We even have a bigger one. The cocoa beans B she uses are mostly sourced from West Africa. The region grows nearly 70% of the world's cocoa. And in 2024, just as Dubai chocolate prices started trending, global cocoa prices hit record highs, topping more than $12,000 per ton. That's nearly triple from the year before. The climate crisis is to blame for much of the spike. Extreme heat and erratic rainfall in West Africa caused cocoa crops to shrivel resulting in smaller harvests. And that's had a domino effect on Dubai chocolate suppliers. Another ingredient that's flying off shelves is shredded fileo or katifi. — We always just made the product because it's part of our heritage and there's an ethnic community that buys it. But then when Dubai chocolate exploded, then it became like one of our best sellers. — Dei helps her family run KTOS Foods, a second generation business in New Jersey. They make all kinds of Greek goodies from pa to traditional pastries and of course kafi. The recipe is simple, flour and water, no yeast. — The dough mix is so different than bread. Bread is alive. Uh this is totally different. Demiy's dad, Steven, has been making this for decades. — I do remember uh as a youngster, 10 and 12 and years old, growing up in my dad's business, that um there was just a hot plate and he would spin it with a pedal on the floor and it would drip and it would just spin around. — The batter is filtered and drops onto a plate about 20 ft in diameter that's heated to 400° F. The dough gets squeezed out in continuous long strands. — It's like hair, like a wig. — The business initially had just one of these kayfi production lines, but they built another to keep up with the new demand. Each runs 24/7 and makes 250 lbs of batter an hour. We make raw katifi dough and then we also make chocolate katifi which is just made with cocoa powder and we also make a toasted katifi which is more brown in color and that is typically used in these Dubai chocolate recipes. — Both Steven and Dei prefer raw feet. — You could wrap it with shrimp. around your favorite things. You can toast it. You can crumble it. You can do whatever you want with it. And food experts say cultural curiosity about products like kafi has also contributed to Dubai chocolate success. We're seeing consumers like are increasingly seeking out international flavors. And so in a really affordable accessible way, Dubai Chocolate Bar let them kind of experience a little bit more of this global flavor. — Even the pistachio cream that forms the filling isn't an ingredient Americans were used to. In the past, you know, we had to explain to people what our products were, how to use it, why it exists. — Malia and her husband, Aud Sardar Chashkurlu, own Pepper Tux Farms, a popular maker of pistachio cream. When Dubai Chocolate went viral, their online sales tripled overnight. — So, we have been in operation for uh 3 years before the trend hit. We had stock which is which was a great uh thing to have during that uh first summer in 2024 when this thing blew up like crazy. — People were scrambling to buy pistachios of all grades and the demand was just so high that people were competing to get high quality pistachios, us included. Like Bulchi, the couple sourced their pistachios from Turkey where Aud is from. The climate in the southern province of Gazantep is ideal for growing them. The soil, the water, the heat, and the atmosphere plays a big role in how a product will actually end up tasting. — The harvest starts at the crack of dawn before it gets unbearably hot. It's a family affair. Everything here is handpicked, unlike at many large-scale pistachio farms in the US. But the supply isn't always steady because pistachios are naturally alternative bearing, which means one season may result in an ample crop while the next could be much smaller. Aut knows this firsthand. Last year, this farm produced about 220,000 lb of pistachios, but this year the yield was just 33,000 lb, made worse by extreme weather. Definitely climate change is making a an impact on u output for sure. Uh we had a bit of a frost uh this year in March when the tree already had the blossoms on it and that's never good for the flower. — Today farmers are separating the highest quality nuts. Then it's time for shelling. — We haul it back to a facility to remove the otter shells with a lot of friction and water. And then once that's done, it's laid out on huge lots to be sundried. The most important step is roasting. How many degrees you roast the product and for how long, how many times it determines a lot of different things. So you might be going for a beautiful green color, that's when you really want to roast it slow. Then the nuts are ground up in a closed machine and mixed with milk, sugar, cocoa butter, and a few other ingredients to form a thick cream. While Ahad swears by his Turkish pistachios, it's the US that leads global production, supplying more than 60%. Iran, which produces 17%, is a distant second, followed by Turkey at around 11%. China is the top buyer, but the country recently imposed tariffs on American grown nuts, which led US imports to drop by over 50% in the first half of 2025. That's opened the door for Iran and Turkey, both known for prioritizing quality over quantity. — That is why we choose antip pistachios, and believe that they're so far superior than pistachios from Iran, Italy, or California. Currently, Pepperjax produces about 1 and a. 5 million of these smaller jars of pistachio cream a year. That 7 oz version is available for around $10. — Uh Wegman's is one of our top top retailers. Whole Foods, again, top retailer. Now, we're launching for a limited time at Costco regions. Even restaurants that never needed pistachio cream are adding it to their kitchens, like Shake Shack, which launched a milkshake. I think the unique thing about the Dubai chocolate bar is that it's just as much textural as it is flavor. We wanted to stay true to those really iconic and delicious ingredients. — The chain debuted the shake in Dubai, but also wanted to add it to menus in the US. So that's where from a supply chain perspective, the work really started looking around the United States to find equal quality pistachio paste, dark chocolate, shredded filow dough that truly replicated what we were serving in Dubai. — Within 6 weeks, they launched it in New York, LA, and Miami. One of their fastest rollouts ever. — And so our ability to turn this around rather quickly and capitalize on that trend is ultimately what I'm most proud of. The limited edition milkshake cost around $10 in the US. That's $5 more than the average cost of a plain chocolate shake at Dairy Queen. And it was a huge hit. — Fact that this was selling out within minutes of it being on the menu um here in New York and around the country was totally unexpected um and was not something that I think we were prepared for. Currently, you can find everything from Dubai style donuts to strawberry cups and even croissants. — There are certain items here that we may switch out over time, but I can't imagine not having it. It's more popular than the triedand-true almond croissant. — That's Keith Conn, the owner of New York's famous bakery or washers. — Morning, Issa. How are you? — Welcome. — How's everything? So, since 1916, we've been here. Uh, and I've been in the bakery business since I'm 24 years old. — Orwashers is known for its Jewish pastries, but they couldn't ignore the popularity of Dubai chocolate. — I like halava very much and I have since a kid and the Dubai chocolate reminded me very much of halva. And everyone likes the filo dough, that crunchiness. So if I had to think of something, — their croissant is filled with chocolate batons. Then bakers add pistachio cream. The one or washers uses is actually from pepper tucks. — So you have the American pistachios that are grown out in California, but if you ever had the Iranian pistachios or Turkish, they're different. — Next, it's mixed with toasted kafi. — It's good workout. See how it's like becoming one here? Croissants are not an easy product to make consistently and it's really it's a little bit of an art. — The tops are drizzled with chocolate and sold for $6. 50 each. — A lot of times social media promotes things that aren't that good. In this case, this is delicious. It's always going to work. I think it's going to be a staple. — I've seen this made from start to finish and it's nearly lunchtime, so I think I can justify eating this now. After we filmed, the bakery offered this batch free to customers. — It looks incredible. — Here's one for you. — Okay. Uh, cheers. — Enjoy the Cheers. — Oh my god. — Um, I thought it was amazing. Me and the baby boy approved. So, no, it's really good. I love this afternoon, too. So, good ice cream. Since 2024, Tik Tok views with the hashtag Dubai chocolate bar have increased by over 500% peaking in March 2025. Now, some influencers have even started making the chocolate as their side hustle, like Vanessa Leang in Saskatoon, Canada, who has 37,000 followers. By day, Vanessa is an oncology pharmacist, but at night, she designs and makes each of these by hand. Because the Dubai chocolate bar was such an, you know, elegant, elaborate thing, I wanted to make it into essentially the most big deal chocolate bar I could. So, I thought, okay, what are the colors? What are the inspirations? I want there to be gold. green. I want it to be really luxurious, hand painted, a marble look on it. At first, Vanessa transformed her garage into a makeshift chocolate factory. Now, she makes these in her own customuilt kitchen. I did a turmeric uh infusion for the toasting of the kafi, which was really nice. And then that pistachio bran brought in that extra crunch, which was just delicious. And then instead of just the pistachio cream, I also incorporated some gold chocolate into the ganache. So, I made it into like a gold chocolate turmeric pafi combination. And it was it was so delicious. — Vanessa sells her premium Taste of Dubai creations for as much as $125 each. And these bars are also Instagrammable like most Dubai chocolate products. It's visually distinctive. Videos have, you know, textures and fillings. Got kind of like that creamy inside but like a hard exterior. And that's, you know, perfect for your ASMRs. There's all those sounds that consumers just love to hear. — And like the original, Vanessa's bars aren't available all the time. — Exclusiveness is always just like a really good way to add to that level of premiumness because you're one of the more select people who got a hold of their product. — But most chocoliers do ramp up production for the holidays as sales tend to soar. Dubai chocolate is basically a seasonal item for us. When it comes to like making a for example a pecan pie or apple pie or you know pumpkin pie these are all seasonal. — New York bakery and desserts is located in the heart of Time Square. But the family that owns it is you guessed it Turkish and gets most of their ingredients from there. — Pistachio comes from Turkey. Chaka comes from Turkey. Kadiv comes from Brooklyn. There's a retired old military Turkish guy who we get it from. — Their larger bar costs nearly $20 and during the holidays they sell about 2,000 a day. Most of their sales are driven by foot traffic, but in the summer they rely on online orders. — It gets a little complicated to ship it cuz it's like 100° outside. It will start melting. Uh we have uh dry ice that we use and then we have um the temperature proof packaging that we use but uh you know once it's like 110° it wouldn't last more than like a day in that — but they plan on selling the chocolate for as long as the trend lasts. — When people stop reacting I think we will you know slow down the numbers a little bit. Back in Dubai, Fix has been launching pop-ups in malls and places like Dubai airport where they sold more than 1. 2 million bars in April 2025 alone. — There isn't a word to even explain how I feel sometimes. But yeah, the pinch me moment is still happening — and they still haven't forgotten their roots — when I go to like you know any event etc. I'm actually trying to buy something from local brands or homegrown brands that have just started because I remember being in that position and that feeling of someone buying something from us was was amazing. — The company now sells at least 10 different kinds of bars. — For us, honestly, it's uh flattering. It's good to see um whether big or

small brands have uh tried to make their own take of our Dubai chocolate. That is my favorite part. — The fat in this matus saka wagyu is so soft it melts as soon as you touch it. The finest cuts of Matsuaka Wagyu have a melting point of 12° C. That's 8° less than cor. And while prices for fine diners in Tokyo have never been low. For the first time, this beef is being sold outside of Japan in Paris where just 100 g sells for $530. These cows are so valuable that in 2002, one fetched $50 million yen, over $330,000 at auction. To reach that low melting point, farmers in Matsusaka painstakingly raise these cows and keep them alive longer than their average lifespan with modern and ancient practices. So, how do you raise the most expensive beef in the world? And why is Matsusaka Wagyu so expensive is a third generation Matsuaka Wagi farmer on his farm in Tsu Mi prefecture you will find only virgin female cows. It's the primary requirement for any of the 80 Matsuaka Wagyu farms here in the Mia Prefecture. Matsusaka beef has long been praised for its extremely low melting point, which is half that of other types of Wagyu. This means that when cooking, the fat melts in a shorter time. to reach this intense marbling. Old generations of farmers like Hideo Hiroi's dad used to feed cows with beer. Although there's no evidence that this practice increases a cow's appetite, many associate ate Matsu Saka Wagi with it. The fact that Matsusaka has kept a relatively low profile internationally has almost transformed this practice into a legend. Hiroi doesn't practice this anymore. Instead, he has perfected the feed and is practicing circular agriculture. The cost of feed is an important factor that drives the prices up to reach that soft marbling. Ling Matsusaka cows need to eat a lot. They also need to eat for a much longer time than other cows. — Matsusaka cows are raised for 30 to 32 months, 6 months longer than other Japanese black cattle. Everything adds up over time for Hioki. the costs of feeding, temperature control, air circulation, and cleaning the enclosures regularly to avoid flies. Farmers here call this raising period fattening. For the first 3 to four months, cattle eat grass to develop a strong digestive system. This is called the belly creation period. Then comes the finishing period where cattle gradually switch to concentrated feed and rice straw to fatten up. Hioki is now experimenting with even longer periods of fattening. Raising his cattle from 35 up to 40 months. But raising cows for such a long time can also be dangerous for Hiroi as a cow could get sick and die. A cow at the end of its fattening period is a true treasure. Every year, Matsusaka cows get auctioned off and one gets crowned queen of Matsusaka. While the highest ever price for one of these cows was 50 million yen in 2002, this auction has never really seen a low price, averaging around 20 million yen. Events like the auction have also fostered another legend that farmers in Matsu Saka massage their cows with alcohol. This time it is not to improve their appetite but their appearance. It's not just adult cows that cost a lot. Carbs can be very expensive. Hiroki doesn't raise his cattle from birth. At 10 months old, calves are also sold at auctions throughout Japan. Hiroki spends almost half of his time at work buying calves, and he's very demanding. BMS. BMS12 is the highest marbling grade for Wagyu in Japan. The more intense the marbling, the higher the price. For customers in Tokyo, 100 g of sirloin costs €10,000 yen. But that's still much less than what Parisians are paying at Maria, where the same cut is sold at €360. The most premium cut tenderloin sells for €5,000 per kilogram. The Paris restaurant was the first to successfully export Matsusako Wagyu out of Japan and include it on its menu. Its most expensive tasting menu costs €520. Matsusaka Wagyu is heavily regulated. To include Matsusaka beef on the menu, the restaurant had to follow strict rules. The Paris restaurant needed to apply for a license, which took a year to be accredited. To maintain it, the restaurant needs to have a high rating on Google Maps, and there can't be another restaurant serving Matsusaka Wagyu within an 840 m radius. As of 2023, Hiroi has shipped only three cows to Maria Cana. Due to this limited supply, the 520 menu with Ethor Ranch's premium tenderloin is served to only one table per day. This exclusivity is set to get a little bit looser. In the last 10 years, Japan has been a major importer of US beef, importing an average of $1. 83 billion a year. Meanwhile, millions worth of Wagyu made the opposite journey as it reached international fame. A decline in tourism after the CO 19 outbreak and a change in consumer behavior toward cheaper meats exacerbated this. And now Japanese cattle farmers are looking outside the country's borders. The export quota for Matsusaka has jumped from 24 in 2022 to 700 in 2024. Of those, it's the most premium cuts that are exported going to high-end restaurants like Maria Caner in Paris. This is pushing farmers who want to ship abroad to bet on those lucrative but dangerous long fattening periods.

We might Heat. Heat.