The goat industry has welcomed a stable price, with goats selling to $5.20 a kilogram carcaseweight for the past few months.
This comes after several years of rapidly rising prices, which culminated in a peak of $7.50/kgcwt, before a market correction in July.
Goat Industry Council Australia president Rick Gates said the high prices had been “good for those who got amongst it” but had created concerns among the supply chain that they were unsustainable.
But he said the present price was still good for those in the sector.
“Six years ago we were at $2.40/kgcwt,” he said.
He said the high price had created some buzz about the industry, which put it in the spotlight and may help reshape its future.
“At $7.50/kg, it was dearer than lamb and beef so it grabbed some headlines,” he said.
While 71 per cent of all goats slaughtered in Australia still come from harvesting, Mr Gates said there had been a shift towards managed goat herds, particularly in Qld.
“There has been a move to exclusion fences for wild dogs and then it is cheaper to restock with goats than with sheep or cattle,” he said.
Mr Gates said this also opened up opportunities for other regions, such as in pastoral SA, to sell undersized goats or nannies to these producers.
Meat & Livestock Australia goat project officer Julie Petty said the market correction still allowed “excellent returns” for producers, as well as along the supply chain.
“The higher prices went – and we were in uncharted territory – there were definitely concerns about how much end-customers would be willing to pay,” she said.
MLA’s goatmeat market snapshot, released in March, showed Northern America continued to be Australia’s largest market, with the value growing almost $70.1 million dollars, against the five-year average, to $181m in 2017.
While most of that was driven by high prices, the market also had its second largest volume of exports to North America, with 18,885 tonnes shipped, just behind the 2014 figure of 19,090t – when prices were almost one-third cheaper.
Thomas Foods International assistant livestock manager Ben Davies said prices were ultimately determined by how much the end-consumer was willing to pay.
He said the numbers of goats slaughtered in 2018 had decreased somewhat, probably because graziers had been heavily mustering goats for the past couple of years.
He said there were also signs that the ongoing dry period in pastoral areas could continue to impact supply.
Despite changes to TFI’s operations at Lobethal, he said this had little impact on the goat operation.
MLA’s eastern states goat slaughter for the past week was down 22 per cent across Qld, NSW, Vic and SA, on this time last year, and down 35pc the week before.