Malaga goat’s milk under threat

Traditional goat farming in Malaga is under immediate threat and is going through one of its toughest times on record.

First it was the pandemic, then the drought, and now losing out to the decision to allow the Dutch goat farming sector to offload tonnes of cheap goat’s milk into the Spanish market.

China, previously the Netherlands’ biggest customer for goat’s milk, decided to stop buying from the Dutch producers, leaving Holland with a glut of milk and nowhere to sell it. And so, the Dutch were given permission to offload it into the Spanish market. This, according to Spanish goat farmers, is forcing them to sell their milk for under the price of production cost.

Goat-herders may have to send their animals off to slaughter

Many Malaga goat-herders are now saying, if nothing is done to curb the undercutting by the Dutch goat’s milk industry, they will have to shut up shop as early as the new year and send their herds off to the slaughter house.

Currently, the cost of farming, milking and transporting the milk is 25% above what the market is willing to pay for the milk as a direct result of the flood of Dutch goats milk, a situation totally unsustainable for Malaga goat farmers. According to the 2023 Price and Market Observatory of the Andalusian Government, the region with the largest number of goats in Spain, the cost of goat milk production is between 1.07 euros and 1.11 euros per litre, well above what they are currently getting at market.

The message is clear from the Andalusian farmers: buy fresh, buy local, support your local communities in the Malaga province.