Steak: – 30 year wait for this

If you wanted a package of frozen beef croquettes from a family-run butcher in Takasago City, Japan, you’d have to be patient for about 30 years.

Writes CNN.

The croquettes—called Extreme Croquettes—with the coveted beef are so popular that it will take three decades before you get the item as ordered.

A family-run butcher shop in Takasago, western Japan, started online shopping in 1999.

– At that time, we introduced Extreme Croquettes for a trial period, says Shigeru Nitta.

200 per day

Nita took over the slaughterhouse from her father in 1994 when he was 30 years old. A few years later, it was found that people were skeptical about buying expensive Kobe beef over the Internet.

He decided to drastically lower the price.

– We’ve made affordable and delicious croquettes to showcase our store. It was a strategy to get customers to taste the croquettes, the owner tells CNN, so they would want to buy more later.

Kobe beef comes from the exclusive Japanese breed of wagyu beef, which originally comes from the Kobe region on the island of Honshu in Japan.

Kobe beef from the aforementioned region of Japan is considered the best beef in the world.

Today, Nitta produces 200 croquettes per day. Customers who will receive Kobe croquettes from the slaughterhouse in 2022 placed the order ten years ago.

32 years

According to CNN, the abattoir is constantly sending out newsletters to many waiting customers, where the estimated waiting time is given.

Nita explains that a week before the delivery, they called the person to remind him of the croquettes ordered ten years ago.

Ignore the doctor’s warnings

According to CNN, a box of five Kobe croquettes costs $18.40—equivalent to NOK 182 at today’s exchange rate.

When Dagbladet inspected the slaughterhouse site on Tuesday afternoon, the waiting time increased by two years.

Motivational Croquette

Nita talks about her most memorable moment as the owner of the slaughterhouse. The order came from a cancer patient who was going to have surgery while he was waiting for his croquette.

– I discovered that croquette was the person’s motivation for the operation, says Nita.

CNN reported that the patient survived, and that the person had made many requests in the time following the operation.