Forward with the goat in Thailand
Goat farm in Chiang Mai
In May 2019, a posting appeared on this blog with a reader's question about keeping goats. The questioner wanted to know if there are people in Thailand who keep goats in a commercial way? What are the experiences? What is needed? Housing, food, vet, vaccinations? Where to buy/sell goats? Which breed for meat consumption etc.?
He received more than 10 responses to it, which, in my opinion, showed that keeping goats in Thailand is not such a bad idea. Read the story and the comments again at: www.thailandblog.nl/ Readers Question/are-there-people-in-thailand-die-goats-keeping-op-commercial-wise
Goat cheese and goat meat
I am not interested in keeping goats myself, because I live in the city. Of course I know goat cheese, but I don't think goat's milk cheese is produced in Thailand. I have eaten goat meat during a stay on Curaçao and in a Surinamese restaurant in Amsterdam, but it has not really become my favorite type of meat.
Increasing demand
Yet I read on the internet that the demand for goat meat is increasing in both the Netherlands and Thailand. I thought of those questions on Thailandblog a few days ago when reading an article in The Nation. Mr. Sorawit Thanito, director general of the Livestock Development Department said this week that the goat market in Thailand has grown exponentially with increasing demand for domestic consumption and export. Still a stimulus for interested and future goat breeders.
Number of goats
“In 2007, Thailand had 38.653 households with a total of 444.774 goats,” said Mr. Sorawit. “Last year we had 65.850 households and 832.533 goats. With proper and targeted marketing, keeping goats can be economically viable, as they are drought resistant and require a small amount of water. At present, there are goat farmers' associations in 64 provinces in Thailand, which consist of more than 500 groups of local farmers. They receive financial support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Cooperatives and also from local governments.
Domestic annual consumption is estimated at 377.000 goats per year, with additional exports to Malaysia and Laos of 140.000 animals, meaning a shortage. Last year we had to import 39.231 goats from Myanmar to satisfy the domestic market.”
Finally
So for those interested, who are still in doubt: Go with the goat!
Source: The Nation
Thanks for your contribution Gringo.
The government is certainly doing something to support the farmers, but this is often unknown.
Picking up the gauntlet is a bigger problem for many, but for some reason they don't want to see it.
In addition to the goats, there are some other possibilities to generate money for the farmers, but even more exports only make the baht more expensive and that is unfavorable for holidaymakers.
Choices, choices, to drive you crazy because it's never good.