Sales of domestic beef in Korea have gone up dramatically this year, with market share reaching 50 percent in September.

The Agriculture Ministry says consumer demand for locally-grown high-quality beef has been on a steady rise despite its rather high price compared to beef imported from the U.S. and Australia.

At one point in 2003, two years after Korea fully opened its market to beef imports, the market share of "hanwoo" beef fell to 36 percent. Domestic beef usually costs two to three times more than imported beef.