GERMAN WAGYU ASSOCIATION (GWA) PARTNERSHIP WITH THE AUSTRALIAN WAGYU ASSOCIATION
The German Wagyu Association (GWA) was founded in 2008. A small group of only seven breeders were the founding members. Until today the number of members has grown to nearly 200. It is a mixture of smaller and medium sized farms/operations and some larger producers.
The structure of the involved organisations
For this purpose, we participated as an
as such is quite different from the
exhibitor in the ANUGA, the worlds biggest
Australian Wagyu Associaton. We have
fair for nutritional products. Just to show
several public breeding organisations,
that there is Wagyu beef from Germany
which are registering the animals/genetics
and the quality is good. Up to now, most
– based on official herdbooks, which are acknowledged by our authorities. This has to be done under the regulations of the European Union. It sounds quite complicated, but this ensures that the registration is officially done and the
of the breeders are selling the beef more regionally. Especially this regionality has become very important for the consumer in Germany. In the future we will have more producers in Germany, which are looking for additional market opportunities. We performed our third national Wagyu Beef
animals/genetics can be traded within the
Contest and published the results to the
EU with a pedigree. In the near future we
chefs and consumers. Furthermore, we
will have two separate herdbooks. One is a
are in the process of establishing a Wagyu
closed herdbook for fullblood Wagyu only
seal – one for Fullblood and the other one
and the second one is an open herdbook
for Wagyu Cross, to achieve a higher level of
for purebred Wagyu, where breeders are
transparency for our consumers.
allowed to add other genetics in order to
In order to produce Wagyu beef on a
breed polled Wagyu for instance.
constant good level for the German market,
The GWA is focused on the development
we have to start with the breed and its
of the breed as such and to support its members with different services. We are three honorary board members and have a steering committee of three additional members. One year ago we launched a business plan, which is focused on our
special requirements. So far breeders mostly use only some genetic test results as “quality indicators”, like SCD and Tenderness. Furthermore, the public breeding organisations are doing a classification on skeleton - musculature – breed character for the breeding animals. Some bits and
development over the next three years.
pieces, which are not really supporting the
One main point is the development of the
development of the breed. As the ancient
breed, the other focus is to support the
philosopher Aristotle said, the whole is
marketing of the beef.
greater than the sum of its parts. ISSUE 79 - THE AUSTRALIAN WAGYU UPDATE
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