Ahead of Korea’s dog meat ban, this meat is booming

Auctioneers inspect goats at a goat auction market opened by the Suwon Livestock Cooperative in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on April 15. Corutesy of Suwon Livestock Cooperative

As Korea’s ban on dog meat consumption is set to take effect next year, the goat market is seeing a boom as an alternative source of restorative food, signaling a potential shift in the livestock industry landscape in Gyeonggi Province, the country’s largest such market.

Gyeonggi Province said Monday that the Paju-Yeoncheon Livestock Cooperative, which operates a goat auction market, sold 174 goats in the first half of last year and 381 in the second half. The market opened in August 2024 and sold 151 goats that year, making the second-half figure last year more than double its opening-year volume. The total trade value also nearly doubled from the year earlier and reached 186 million won (around $124,000).

The goat auction market recorded a total of 171 goats traded through April this year, despite disruptions caused by a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak at a farm in Ganghwa County, Incheon, on Jan. 30 that forced the market to close in February and March.

The report showed each auction sold more than 40 goats on average, up from 34 a year earlier. Goats sold for medicinal use generally weighed less than 20 kilograms, while those raised for meat production weighed between 50 and 80 kilograms.

As goat auction markets in northern Gyeonggi Province and the Incheon area see growing demand, the Suwon Livestock Cooperative also opened southern Gyeonggi’s first goat auction market on April 15 in Hwaseong. On its first day, 24 goats were sold.

It also added goats to the items traded at its electronic auction market, which had mostly handled cattle, as more livestock farms have begun raising goats in response to growing demand, according to an official at the Suwon Livestock Cooperative. Most of the goats sold there are sent through slaughterhouse operators and eventually supplied to restaurants specializing in goat meat.

Official data showed the number of goat farms in Gyeonggi Province rose sharply from 663 farms with 25,225 goats in 2023 to 866 farms with 33,863 goats last year, as demand picked up.

“Goat meat is emerging as an alternative restorative food as awareness grows that dog meat consumption will be banned,” said an official at the Gyeonggi branch of the Korea Foodservice Industry Association. He added that the number of restaurants specializing in goat meat has increased by 10 to 15 percent since the dog meat ban was passed in 2024.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.