Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives

Goat Market and Marketing

Market

Most of the Manitoba production of meat goats is marketed through auction markets or sold to brokers, who arrange for the goats to be slaughtered in Manitoba or exported.

Marketing

Continues to be an area of considerable concern to producers.

Development of increased shipments of live goats from Manitoba in all directions (to Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and south to the United States) continues. In 2000, 4,000 goats were shipped to Ontario and Quebec primarily for slaughter. About 350 Manitoba breeding goats were sold to Saskatchewan and Alberta.  Of the 442 goats exported in 2000, goats shipped to the United States were valued at almost $8,660 and shipments to Trinidad and Tobago were valued at $14,200.

An estimated 200,000 litres of goat milk was pasteurised and sold as fluid milk to retail outlets in the Prairie provinces and Northern Ontario or processed into feta and other cheeses.

Currently, about 33% of the provincial production is slaughtered in the province for local consumption (either in plants or on farms for the ethnic trade).

Producer education on marketing alternatives and the development of additional marketing channels continue to be the priorities for development within the industry.