[Interview] Min Kyung-chun, President of the Korean Hanwoo Association: Opposes Market Opening Without Compensation... Hanwoo Act Must Include Management Stability

According to Yangpyeong Livestock Cooperative, 16at the male calf auction held that day, the highest-priced calf fetched 6.899million won per head. The average winning bid that day was 5.393million won, up 106,000won from the auction held on the 2nd, two weeks earlier. Data compiled by the NongHyup Livestock Information Center also showed that as of August, the average price of 6- to 7month-old male calves was 5.16million won, 19.2% higher than 4.328million won in the same period of 2025. Compared with Hanwoo wholesale market auction prices in the same month(excluding defective cattle·and cattle recommended for culling), which stood at 24,240won per kg, up 18.4% from 20,479won in the same month a year earlier, the rate of increase in calf prices exceeds the rise in wholesale prices.

Min Kyung-chun, president of the Korean Hanwoo Association(chairman of the Hanwoo Self-Help Fund Management Committee), said in an interview with the Korea Agricultural Technology Newspaper on the 16th, “If feed costs and raising costs are added to purchase costs, the production cost for one beef animal exceeds 10million won.”On the question of whether farms can fully recover that money, the field cannot readily answer. On top of this, as discussions resume on joining the Comprehensive·and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership(CPTPP) and efforts move forward to restart Korea·Mercosur(Southern Common Market) trade agreement negotiations, pressure for further beef market opening is rising again.

President Min Kyung-chun made clear his principle for responding to opening, saying, “Without support measures for farms and reasonable compensation measures, we absolutely cannot accept it.”The vessel for the solution he describes is the Act on the Transition and Support of the Hanwoo Industry in Accordance with Carbon Neutrality(the Hanwoo Act), which took effect on July 23, 2026. The enforcement decree·and enforcement rules took effect on August 21. The point is that creating the law is not the end, but that management stabilization mechanisms capable of absorbing the shock of opening must be built into it.

 

Not unconditional opposition to opening...Demands mechanism to adjust imports according to prices

President Min said, “Many Hanwoo farms practice mixed farming, so Mercosur is closely connected not only to livestock but also to crop farming,”adding, “The reason we oppose CPTPPis the same.”However, he drew a line, saying this is not an argument to block opening itself. He said, “If the government does not lie, and if market opening cannot be avoided, then shouldn’t it support farmers?”and pointed out, “When damage to farms is obvious, they must not be told to sacrifice blindly.”

He said farmers’ distrust stems from past experience. President Min said, “Government promises to provide compensation when concluding FTAshave not been kept,”and said, “Now farmers do not believe what the government says. It is exactly like the story of the wolf in the fairy tale.”He emphasized, “Policy authorities must not lie and must keep their promises.”

He also presented a concrete alternative. He said, “A mechanism should be created that gives producers a certain degree of import licensing authority, blocks imports when domestic prices fall too much, and opens imports when prices rise,”adding, “Does it make sense to open unconditionally so that only companies make money?. If even such safeguards were put in place, would we only oppose it unconditionally?”Regarding the profits of companies that imported tariff-free, he also pointed out, “If they made money, they should give back to farmers.”

 

Hanwoo Act enacted 11 years after proposal...Must include beef-cattle management stabilization program

The Hanwoo Act was enacted in July 2025, 11 years after the (late) former president Lee Kang-woo, during his tenure, saw the first proposal of the ‘Hanwoo Industry Development Bill’in August 2014. President Min recalled that the final stretch was the most difficult. 

He recalled, “When a legislative proposal was submitted to the National Assembly, it would go under the desk, and then be proposed again 2-3years later, repeatedly,”adding, “The back-and-forth between the ruling and opposition parties continued, making it difficult to draw agreement from both sides.”

President Min said he devoted effort to getting the bill passed by agreement between the ruling and opposition parties. He said, “If the bill had not been processed by agreement between both sides, the Hanwoo Act could have vanished, and I would have had to take responsibility for that disgrace,”adding, “By making a strong appeal to the National Assembly, we revived a law that could easily have been buried under the desk again.”

The resolution adopted by the Korean Hanwoo Association at its 27th anniversary ceremony held at Daejeon ICCHotel on September 15is in the same context. The association called for a reconsideration of further beef market opening, management stabilization measures in line with the legislative purpose of the Hanwoo Act, and securing the necessary budget.

As concrete measures, President Min said, “For farmers, projects such as a beef-cattle management stabilization program, feed stabilization, and culling of low-performing cattle should be included in the detailed plans.”He also takes the position that a realistic plan to reorganize the calf production stabilization program should be included in the details of the Hanwoo Act.

However, he admitted that there are limits to what a producer organization can do on its own. He said, “The association is an organization that makes recommendations, but if the receiving side does not accept them, they end as recommendations,”adding, “Policy changes only when government policymakers try to change even a little.”

 

Farms raise cattle, companies handle distribution...“There is business ethics”

Regarding the provision in the Hanwoo Act restricting corporate entry into livestock farming, he set out a matter of principle. President Min said, “Hanwoo should be raised by farmers, and companies should not compete with farmers,”adding, “Companies should make profits by distributing·and selling what farmers produce, and the idea that they will make money by getting involved from the rearing stage is wrong. No matter how much they want to raise cattle, there is business ethics(commercial morality).”

He asked, “If companies import beef, companies raise cattle, and companies handle feed, promotion, and distribution, what are farmers supposed to live on?”He added, “If farmers become subordinated to companies, they cannot even improve breeds in the direction they want, and they have to raise cattle according to whatever wages the companies pay. From a farmer’s point of view, what hope and what rights would there be?”He continued, “Hanwoo involves large volumes in the liquid manure·and composting process, but there is little space to process it,”emphasizing, “Given the conditions that make it difficult for companies to do everything, farmers should be allowed to focus on raising cattle.”

He gave an even more direct message to contract-feeding farms. President Min said, “To avoid becoming slaves to companies, farmers themselves must awaken, and only then can farmers become sovereign actors,”saying that even the hopes of the secondgeneration who have entered Hanwoo farming should not be crushed.

 Production cost per head exceeds 10 million won...“One mountain after another”

Apart from responding to external pressure, he also emphasized farmers’ self-help efforts. President Min said, “Even as grain prices rise, farmers are trying to restock, so calf prices have soared and the burden on farms has grown,”adding, “Costs exceed 10million won, but do farms receive 10million won?, It is one mountain after another.”He went on, “Farmers themselves are in a situation where they must think about the profit structure based on a cost of 10million won,”and said, “If farmers do not reduce costs on their own, the industry itself will become difficult.”

Since 1982, having raised cattle, he pointed to the long rearing period as a structural weakness. President Min explained, “For other livestock species, funds turn over in as little as 30days, or at most 4months, but for Hanwoo it is at least 2years,”adding, “The fact that no one knows what will happen during that period is the biggest burden for farmers.”

 

Push to raise self-help fund levy per head from 20,000 to →30,000 won...Companies also urged to participate

Also serving as chairman of the Hanwoo Self-Help Fund Management Committee, he said he would place producers at the center of self-help fund operations. President Min said, “When farmers produce Hanwoo, there is a price gap with imported meat, and the self-help fund is money created to make up that gap, develop the Hanwoo market and distribute Hanwoo,”adding, “The fact that farms pay 20,000won per head means it should be used that way. We will use the self-help fund according to its purpose.”

He cited support for the price difference in raw meat as a representative example. According to the Hanwoo Self-Help Fund Management Committee, the amount executed for the project was 4.6billion won in 2023, 1.8billion won in 2024, and 800million won in 2025, while the budget for 2026is 400million won. The committee explained that the project scale has decreased every year due to rising Hanwoo wholesale prices, participating companies’ poor purchase-volume performance compared with their plans, and difficulties securing local government funds. However, President Min assessed the project’s effects positively.

He explained, “We provided 2,000-4,000won per kgso that companies using imported meat would use Hanwoo,”adding, “That means an imported meat market of that size was replaced with Hanwoo.”He continued, “It is not blindly giving money; it is given on the condition that they do not use imported meat,”and said, “Because it was done through price-difference support, companies began using Hanwoo.”

An increase in the levy, currently 20,000won, is also being pursued. President Min said, “We are holding briefing sessions for farmers,”and stated, “If we look to the distant future of the Hanwoo industry, we should move toward a model in which farmers raise it to 30,000won and companies also participate.”He added, “Feed companies, animal pharmaceutical companies, distributors and other companies benefiting thanks to Hanwoo should pay a self-help fund contribution of 10,000won per head or participate in the form of a development fund to create a joint fund that can be used in difficult times.”

 Concurrent roles at association·and self-help fund shorten project periods...Chuseok market sales of 2.8billion won

Regarding his concurrent positions as association president and self-help fund management committee chairman, he cited the speed of project implementation as the biggest advantage. President Min said, “Because I do the work of two places, it is difficult in terms of time·and physical demands, but since two organizations move in the same way under one person’s direction, project periods are shortened and budgets are saved.”

As achievements, he cited the recovery of Hanwoo prices and results in promoting consumption. The Hanwoo Self-Help Fund Management Committee said that at the ‘Online Hanwoo Market for Chuseok’held for four days from September 7-10, it sold 2.8billion won worth of products, offering grilling cuts and meat cuts such as sirloin at 7,370won per 100g of grade 1 Hanwoo, and bulgogi·and soup meat at 3,250won, along with byproducts·and processed goods. According to Livestock Distribution Information from the Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation, Septemberwholesale market prices(based on the 1st-15th)rose 22.4% from the average price in September last year.

President Min said, “I promised to recover Hanwoo prices during my term, and as the association, the self-help fund, and NongHyup each divided their roles and promoted consumption, prices improved,”explaining, “If all three hold consumption promotion events around the same time, the effect decreases. If there are intervals and the timing matches when consumers will eat, the effect is large.”He added with expectation, “Following the self-help fund event, the association and NongHyup will hold events in succession,”and said, “With the timing adjusted, consumption during the Chuseok peak season will increase.”

 

Vaccines·hygiene inspections·and antibiotic checks...Please recognize the value of Hanwoo

He also left a request for people to recognize the value of Hanwoo. President Min said, “Hanwoo is the only breed of its kind in the world,”adding, “It is raised in clean, improved barns on feed and roughage managed so that mold toxins do not develop.”He continued, “It is vaccinated on time and delivered to consumers with safety maintained after hygiene inspections and antibiotic checks at slaughterhouses,”explaining, “In our country, the distribution system is also reliable, to the extent that there are no distributors that take more than two hours to reach after slaughter.”He said, “I hope consumers will recognize the value of all the care taken until Hanwoo, raised with difficulty, reaches the table.”

Regarding his futureahead of the expiration of his term in March 2027, he was cautious with his words. President Min said, “I will have to listen to the opinions of those around me who have helped and then decide,”adding, “I have worked thinking that next Marchis my last. If I work thinking I will run again next time, I may become conscious of votes and be unable to point things out.”He added, “If there is a better leader, it is right for that leader to take the role.”