The present state and competitiveness of [diary!] dairy sheep and goat sector in Hungary and the European Union

The keeping requirements of the goat and the sheep are as demanding as that of the cattle, and the market demand of goat- and sheep diary-products grows continually. Despite this the sectors in Hungary are in difficult situation. I reviewed the last 10 years of these sectors in the World, the European Union and Hungary. I selected the topic to examine the possibilities for reviving the sector. I was to show the strong points of the sectors, and how we can create a major food market segment form them. The number of the animals would increase, workplaces would be created, and the sheep and goat diary-products would be part of the ordinary nutrition. In the past 10 years the number of the goats rose, so the number of the animals almost reached 1 billion globally, at the same time in Europe there was a small reduction. The most of the animals can be found in Asia. The annual produce of the goat milk highly increased, to 17,1 million tons in 10 years. In this regard in the world Asia (particularly India) is the leader. In the EU the number of the goats decreased until 2009, Greece and Spain are the major producer countries. Until 2008 milk production, like the number of the animals, had been showing a decreasing tendency, but after that it increased again. If we are looking at the whole picture between 2004 and 2009 the milk production was stagnating. The development is not restricted by the EU, there is no quota of the sheep’s and goat’s milk products, so there are no limits in quantity, only in quality. In Hungary, the goat keeping began to develop in the 1990’s. The development was continuous until 2000, but this tendency was followed by decline. Only in 2001, the number of goats halved. We are currently at the level of the year 1995, and it is looks like, there will be no significant improvement in the next 1-2 years. The Hungarian goat sector almost exclusively produces for the domestic markets. After 2002 significant reduction (of 55%) occurred in the produce of the goat milk, which lasted until 2008. Since then a small but continuous increase can be observed