Recently, the price of cow gallstones is trading at prices higher than gold, becoming the center of smuggling and crime. This is because demand has surged as cow gallstones are known to be effective for hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that with the surge in demand for gallstones, there is a frenzy for gallstone hunting in Texas, Australia, and the Brazilian savanna, which are the world's largest beef production areas. Cow gallstones have been used as important materials in traditional medicine in the Chinese-speaking world for thousands of years and are used to treat various diseases, including strokes.
Recently, as the number of patients with hypertension and cardiovascular diseases has increased in China, the value of cow gallstones has skyrocketed. According to the WSJ, the current price of cow gallstones is up to $5,800 per ounce (about 7.68 million won), which is twice as expensive as gold. In China, 178 out of every 100,000 people die from strokes each year, which is more than three times the figure in the United States.
China's traditional medicine market has rapidly grown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese government has actively encouraged the use of traditional medicine, resulting in the industry growing to an annual size of $60 billion (about 86.346 trillion won).
In particular, Hong Kong has become a major distribution route for cow gallstones imported from several countries, including Brazil. The value of Hong Kong's cow gallstone imports, which was $75.5 million (about 108.6 billion won) in 2019, has nearly tripled to $218.4 million (about 314.2 billion won) in 2023.
Brazil, the world's largest beef exporter, is emerging as a hub for gallstone smuggling. Workers in slaughterhouses often find gallstones in cows' intestines and secretly smuggle them for sale at high prices. Recently, incidents of gallstone smuggling and robbery have surged in the rural town of Bahetus in São Paulo, Brazil. Armed robbers have attacked farms to steal gallstones, or slaughterhouse workers have been found smuggling gallstones.
Gallstone smuggling is becoming a major source of revenue for organized crime, surpassing simple illegal transactions. The WSJ noted that "traffickers employ various methods to smuggle gallstones to Asia, and sometimes mishandle them, posing significant risks."
However, the supply of gallstones is gradually decreasing. This is due to an increasing number of cases where cattle are slaughtered at younger ages to improve agricultural efficiency in several beef-producing regions, including Brazil. Generally, the chances of gallstone formation increase as cows age. Slaughtering younger cows means there is insufficient time for gallstones to form, which naturally leads to a decrease in the supply of gallstones.