Japan's agriculture ministry is proposing a new law to prohibit the export of genetic material from the country's Wagyu cattle to retain its competitive edge in the international meat trade. In Taiwan, a remedy should also be applied to local agricultural products that were once a cash cow crucial to the survival of tens of thousands of families.

Wagyu beef, best known for its marbling and unbeatable flavor, is an indispensable menu item at fine dining restaurants across the world, though buyers have been able to source cheaper full-blood or crossbred alternatives from Australia and the U.S. since the 1990s.

To fight for its title as the king of Wagyu beef, Japan convened a meeting of experts last February and is mulling legislation to ban the smuggling of Wagyu genetic material, such as fertilized eggs and semen, thanks to the growing global demand for the meat.

The new law will define the genetic features of wagyu as intellectual property and allow injunctions against reselling, siphoning, and breeding them for other countries without proper contracts. Violators will face a stiff penalty under the new law.

The government of Taiwan should follow suit by labeling the genetic features of its agricultural products as intellectual property and criminalizing acts of smuggling genetic the material of the listed products into China, Southeast Asia, and other countries where their cultivation will harm our competitiveness in the international trade.

Grouper and the variously coloured abalone once sustained thousands of families in the island country, but today they fail to compete with their Chinese and Southeast Asian rivals given the lower production costs. The Taiwanese black pearl strain of wax apples, golden diamond pineapples, and moth orchids all face a similar situation.

It is better late than never. In addition to billions of dollars spent on the research and development of local agricultural produce as well as marketing, the government of Taiwan and legislators should also jointly hammer out a law to effectively protect the research and, eventually, the lives of tens of thousands of local farmers and people engaged in agribusiness.

(Translated by a Taiwan News editor)