Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店), the flagship property of Regent Hotels & Resorts (晶華麗晶酒店集團), over the weekend wooed local diners with a luxury wagyu meal that it provided in collaboration with Japan’s Kakiyasu Group.
Regent Taipei managing director Simon Wu (吳偉正) said that he is expecting an extra NT$5 million (US$170,068) in sales at its Japanese restaurant Mihan Honke (三燔本家) this month alone on the back of the collaboration.
Food and beverages accounted for about 60 percent of the five-star facility’s revenue of NT$683.52 million last year and it is expected to add 5 percent this year amid continuing economic growth at home and abroad, Wu said.
The figure represents a 1.94 percent increase from the volume in 2016, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Taiwan’s beef market is worth NT$18 billion a year, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
The government in October last year lifted a 14-year ban on beef imports from Japan, Sweden and the Netherlands, and local eateries have since launched menus featuring expensive wagyu from Japan to attract diners and boost sales.
Regent Taipei capitalized on the trend with a luxury wagyu dining experience priced at NT$15,800 per person for a nine-course meal.
The 100 seats reserved for the event sold out beforehand and generated NT$2 million in revenue, which included wine pairing selections, Wu said.
Kakiyasu is one of Japan’s oldest restaurant chains, with more than 150 years of history, and owns hot pot, sukiyaki, buffet and dessert stores.
Starting on Friday last week, wagyu lovers with smaller budgets can find relatively more affordable options, such as the NT$3,800 meal at Mihan Honke, or Japanese rice bowl dishes priced from NT$480 to NT$880 at cafe Azie, Wu said.
Wagyu dishes will affirm Regent Taipei’s leadership in the local dining market, Wu said.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) has also invested in a project to produce Japanese-style beef using local cattle through experimental breeding techniques.
Lee, who has a doctorate in agricultural economics, is working with a biotechnology firm to raise 20 head of cattle on land rented from Shin Kong Chao Feng Ranch and Resort (新光兆豐農場) in Hualien County to make domestic farming of wagyu-style beef possible within three years.
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