Goat exports surge

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) report the eastern States goat slaughtering in the first three weeks of August totalled 118,009, an increase of 30 per cent on the same period last year of 90,209 head.

National Livestock Recording Services (NLRS) operations manager, Josh Anderson, said Australian goat meat exports during 2012-13 reached the highest fiscal year volume on record at 31,876 tonnes (carcase weight), also up 30pc year-on-year – totalling $145.6 million.

“Dry conditions during the summer and autumn months saw record goat slaughter levels which in turn filtered through to the export market, as the majority of domestic goat meat production is destined for export trade,” he said.

The result was an increase in supply due to fine and mild weather which was assisting mustering.

“Abattoir contracts indicating they have a high level of goats booked to works is placing downward pressure on prices of late,” Mr Anderson said.

Winter rain had tightened supply, but export over-the-hook prices were tracking at about the same levels as August last year.

Mr Anderson said goats from 12 to 16 kilograms (cwt) this month averaged 247 cents a kilogram, while in the corresponding period last year rates settled at about 249c/kg.

Dubbo’s goat sales specialist, Joe Portelli of P.T. Lord, Dakin and Associates, said the goat market was as strong as he had ever experienced it.

“It’s come back this week due to coming off Ramadan, plus the weather has played a bit of havoc,” he said.

“The good season in our immediate area has made it hard to access goats at present.”

Mr Portelli said that unlike dry conditions where Australian bush goats would tend to be drawn to water and be trapped, ample water in their environment has made trapping difficult.

“In dry times, people tend to get rid of goats which compete with domestic livestock for feed, but it’s been too wet for this,” he said.

Exporter of live goats and goat meat for more than 15 years, Paul Eliseo, who is also a director of P. and D. Exports, Roseworthy, South Australia, agreed that normally the price didn’t change much.

“Goat prices are always up there at about 200c/kg to 250c/kg,” he said.

“But you only have to go back about two months when prices were about 170c/kg to 180c/kg.

“That’s because there are so many Australian bush goats (ABG) around that the goat job relies on the prices of those bush goats to set the market.”

His abattoir clients need a consistent supply of 1000 goats and 300 lambs a week, so he had set up a reliable source with the Dubbo market being strategic to this.

“Dubbo is one of the few places where I can obtain Boer-cross wethers in good numbers,” he said, suggesting his clients prefer the taste of those better finished quality crossbred lines.

“But people who were breeding them in outer regions have stopped and moved into Dorper breeding because the ABG market outstripped Boer-crosses,” he said.

That was at a time when the Malaysian government was seeking female goats to increase the national herd.

Mr Eliseo said at that time he was buying Boer-cross nannies at prices between $50 and $70 a head.

“However, too many exporters got involved and while supply remained steady, demand for this lucrative market pushed prices up to $120 and even $180 a head.”

He said the bubble burst and that market finished.

“And so too the many Boer-cross breeders,” he said.