This interest was only too clear at the recent Malaysia Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism Exhibition 2008 (MAHA 2008). Hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry, the event proved to be fertile territory for Australian goat exporters and suppliers and orders secured during the August event are now being filled.
Further adding to demand are the Malaysian Government tenders covering the Peninsular, Sarawak and Sabah regions. These are being conducted during October and are calling for large numbers of goats to be supplied over the next couple of months.
Strong interest is also coming from Brunei with large deliveries to that market scheduled for October.
To support this important trade, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and LiveCorp have conducted goat nutrition workshops in October with the Department of Veterinary Services in Sarawak. The nutrition consultant also provided advice to goat farmers in Sabah and Brunei following these workshops. Similar workshops were conducted in Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei in May.
Geoff Davies and Fiona Lander from Moree have been exporting about 2,000 goats per month to Malaysia and Brunei and will be providing a first-hand account of their experiences and tips on how to get involved in the trade at the upcoming Orange Meat Profit Day on Wednesday 12 November, which features the session: Goats - never boering! at 10:45am.