מגדלי עיזים אלגרבה אופטימיים

Nuno Coelho, a producer of goats from the Algarve, told Lusa agency that, in 2022, the drought and lack of water brought an increase in costs with the purchase of animal feed to face the lack of pastures and fodder and “made many producers to reduce the herd”.

“In my case, I had about 120 animals and I had to reduce the number of animals to about half. Now I have around 60”, he said, revealing that the year 2022 “was negative” for his accounts, having been “about 35% below” the income obtained in a normal year.

Nuno Coelho has his production of Algarvian goats located in Alcoutim, in the northeast Algarve, one of the most desertified and aging areas in the country, and this makes the activity “more complex”, due to the lack of labour and absence of structures such as slaughterhouses, whereby an increase in costs threatens the continuity of indigenous goat farms.

Despite the fact that, in recent weeks, “feed prices have dropped a little” and producers are receiving more per litre of milk (from around 60 cents to 80 cents) and kilogram of meat (from five to seven euros), the high age of the producers and the lack of a slaughterhouse in the Algarve make it difficult to maintain the activity.