Restaurants in Ninh Binh are often full on holiday weekends.

Parking lots are full of tour buses and cars.

Diners wait up to 30 minutes for a table, and kitchens work non-stop.

The province's famous dishes have transformed a struggling livestock trade into a big industry.

A restaurant owner in Hoa Lu Ward serves nearly 300 guests a day and processes 20 goats daily.

His business now makes almost VND1 billion per month.

The owner grew up herding goats in the limestone mountains of Ninh Xuan Commune.

His childhood was spent following goat herds and helping his parents with farming.

Before 2008, Ninh Binh goat meat was not popular.

Farmers had problems with theft, disease, and wild dogs.

Traders paid low prices for goats, and farmers made little profit.

Many households earned almost no profit, and some lost money.

The owner's parents opened a goat restaurant in 2008 to create a market for local meat.

The early years were difficult.

Sometimes it took two days to sell one goat.

The owner trained as a chef and developed new recipes based on family techniques.

He experimented with new cooking styles, including grilled and steamed goat dishes.

The small family restaurant grew into a chain of businesses with 30 workers.

The owner's signature dish won a prize at a cooking competition in 2023.

A 65-year-old man, Nguyen Minh Duc, represents traditional goat cooking.

Duc began his career after leaving the military in the late 1980s.

He and his wife bought goats from farmers, slaughtered them, and sold the meat.

They carried goat meat on shoulder poles and sold it door-to-door.

Locals called him 'Duc De' or 'Duc the Goat'.

Duc now owns two restaurants known for their goat spring rolls.

Making high-quality spring rolls requires precise techniques and years of experience.

During peak seasons, his family works around the clock to meet demand.

The restaurants sell hundreds of spring rolls priced at VND100,000 each.

Maintaining customer volumes requires stable livestock supplies.

Farmers in Ninh Binh shifted from traditional herding to larger-scale farming using herbal feed.

Goats naturally eat a variety of plants, including medicinal herbs.

A cooperative leased land to develop barns and herbal-growing areas.

The cooperative raises between 800 and 1,000 goats per cycle.

The herd consumes 1.5 tons of feed daily, including grass and medicinal herbs.

The herbal diet improves disease resistance and reduces veterinary costs.

The model has expanded into broader community-based supply chains.

A cooperative works with 50 households and supplies 5,000-6,000 meat goats annually.

The cooperative has a closed production chain covering breeding and deep processing.

Products have received Vietnam's three-star OCOP certification.

Combined annual output exceeds 10 tons.

Mountain goat cuisine has become one of Ninh Binh's strongest tourism identities.

Authorities registered the 'Ninh Binh Mountain Goat' trademark in 2015.

The industry supports thousands of households across Ninh Binh's semi-mountainous areas.

The industry has evolved into a sustainable economic engine, elevating local livelihoods and Ninh Binh's culinary map.