Ox Gallstones Colombia – Are Processors Making a Killing at Beef Producers’ expense?

Since Monday’s story about gallstone theft at a southeast Queensland abattoir, there has been plenty of chat on social media about this cattle byproduct. It’s been suggested that processors are making a fortune from them, at beef producers’ expense.

Thankfully, it’s not true. There’s a very good reason for that: Ox gallstones are rare and in high demand as a precious Chinese herbal medicine.

Supply and Demand

Gallstones – the small pebble-like crystals that form around blood vessels in cattle’s intestines – have long been prized by Chinese medicine practitioners for their purported medicinal properties. Their bilirubin content is believed to be particularly potent in treating ailments like hepatitis and lung cancer, and their reputation as a natural antidote to hepatitis C has helped them become an increasingly sought-after alternative therapy for people across the world.

For years, Australian meat processing plants have collected these stones from their kill floors in order to rake in a tidy sum of cash. The value of these stones is highly variable: based on their size, shape, colour and other factors. They weigh more than half a kilo and can be worth hundreds of dollars per kilogram.

But what makes these precious rocks so lucrative is that their presence on the kill floor is not commonplace. Only about ten percent of Australia’s large abattoirs harvest these rocks, according to Gerard Murtagh, the man behind Sunshine Trading: a nationwide operation that has become the dominant gallstone white market player in the country.

Gerard was a fresh-faced 19-year-old when he first took up the family business, but within two years his entrepreneurial spirit had turned Sunshine into an institutional juggernaut. He launched a national education campaign: teaching slaughterhouses how to dry, preserve and store gallstones in order to make the most money possible. He also invented a waist-high, stainless steel box with mesh baskets inside that would secure them in place and prevent gutties from touching them.

After the stone is removed from the cow’s intestines it needs to be washed in cold water and then dried at a very low temperature for at least two weeks. It is then placed in a hermetically sealed bag and stored for a further two to three weeks in a dark, well ventilated room at 20 degrees Celsius. The stones are then flipped over and turned regularly to dry them more effectively.

When the supply of gallstones is in high demand, they can sell for thousands of dollars a kilogram. It is therefore a wise investment to buy them in bulk.

Value

MONDAY’S story about the theft of gallstones at an abattoir in southeast Queensland has aroused considerable interest on social media, with one reader suggesting they could be worth up to $20,000 a kilogram. Some have argued that this is a case of processors taking advantage of beef producers and, in so doing, making a killing at their expense.

But gallstones are extremely rare, just like oyster pearls or gold nuggets. The Australian cattle industry’s entire production each year is about 200kg, according to one of the country’s leading dealers in the commodity. It’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the profits that the biggest meat processors make from selling cattle to the table.

The value of gallstones, however, varies dramatically depending on their quality, shape and size. The best, most lustrous, golden ones, for example, will fetch a premium price. But the value of darker, pitted stones, or those with calcium inclusions, is significantly lower.

Another factor that determines the value of an individual gallstone is its dryness, colour, texture and size. These factors are generally influenced by bile-environment composition, according to Chinese herbal specialists.

As a result, some collectors, if they want to maximise their chances of getting a good deal, store their stones in a dark place before shipping them overseas. This is to minimise their chance of absorbing light-sensitive bilirubin, which can degenerate if they come into contact with light.

A number of people on Facebook and darknet marketplaces around the world are now buying and selling gallstones. These buyers typically pay around US$57 USD per gram for “average” products, but they can go as high as $60 USD or more for ‘higher grade’ stones.

These buyers, who are often from the UK or Europe, have been supplying this product to China for more than a decade. Some of them are also trading with other countries, including Hong Kong.

The demand for gallstones in Chinese medicine is largely driven by its high medicinal value and the lack of domestic supply. Currently, domestic supply is limited to about one metric ton, while the Chinese pharmaceutical industry requires 100 metric tons of gallstones for a range of proprietary medicines each year.

Medicinal Purpose

There is a long history of using ox gallstones, or bezoars as they are also called, to heal a variety of ailments. They are used to treat poisonous snake bites, scorpion stings, and a host of other ailments. Some even claim they can make a man virile and improve a woman’s fertility.

Ox bile is known for having high concentrations of hydrophobic bile acids, which act as powerful detergents and antiseptics. These can help kill pathogenic bacteria and fungi that could otherwise be difficult to remove. It also contains high levels of vitamins A, D, E and K, which can help combat night blindness, infertility, childhood rickets, hemorraghic diathesis, and osteopenia.

Moreover, it is well-known that ox gallstones contain a calcium molecule called bilirubin, which is also known to have antipyretic, anticonvulsive, and bacterial growth inhibition properties. These benefits of ox gallstones are what helped them become a highly prized medicinal ingredient in China for over 2,500 years.

The ancient Chinese were able to tell a real ox gallstone from a fake one by simply rubbing their finger on it. The fake stone was usually red in color, while the real thing was yellow.

Today, ox gallstones are still in high demand as a precious Chinese herbal medicine. They are either sold as natural gallstones or combined with other ingredients into proprietary Chinese medicines. They are available in various sizes, and can be found as tubes from the bile ducts of cattle as well as in whole or broken pieces. The most valuable ox gallstones are whole, smooth and golden in color with no pitting or calcium inclusions, while dark stones are of lower value.

Production

MONDAY’S article about charges being laid against an abattoir worker over gallstone theft aroused a lot of interest in beef industry circles. Many social media posts and commentators suggested that processors must be making a fortune from these objects harvested during slaughter, at the expense of beef producers.

But, the truth is that they’re incredibly rare and expensive to acquire in quantity. The cattle industry only harvests about 200kg of these’stones’ a year, according to one of Australia’s biggest dealers in the commodity.

Gallstones are a by-product of the bile extraction process on an eviscera table at the abattoir. They’re most common in older cows and bulls, although the quality can vary.

They are a valuable commodity in China, as a precious Chinese herbal medicine, used for a variety of ‘alternative’ medicines, either alone or mixed with other ingredients. The demand for natural gallstones has grown dramatically in recent years, with a reported requirement of around 100 metric tons per year to produce a wide range of propriety Chinese medicines.

These natural, ‘niuhuang’-style gallstones are prized by Chinese patients and are used to treat a variety of ailments, including digestive problems, headaches, joint pain, menstrual complaints, fatigue and stress. They are also used to promote sleep and improve mood.

After removing the gallstones from the animal’s intestines, they are washed with cold water to remove blood clots and impurities, then dried in a dark and well-ventilated room at a temperature of 20 degrees C for two or three weeks. The stones are moved frequently to avoid sticking together and are packed in hermetically sealed bags.

The price of the stone depends on its size, quality, shape and other parameters. The retail price for a small pellet weighing three grams is around US$195, while the value of a whole tael (i.e. one kilogram) is HK$19,000 in the Hong Kong market.

Ox gallstones are a rare and expensive by-product of the cattle industry, used for a variety of ‘alternative’ herbal medicines, either alone or mixed with other ingredients. They are valued for their medicinal properties and have become a significant source of revenue for some meat processing plants in the United States.

Ox Gallstones Colombia – Are Processors Making a Killing at Beef Producers’ expense?