MYANMA Agricultural Produce Trading says Malaysia and Thailand have shown strong interest in buying goats from farms it is developing in central Myanmar.

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“Malaysia and Thailand have said they can buy as many goats that we can produce, at a price of US$30 for an animal weighing 25 kilograms,” the MAPT managing director, U Min Hla Aung, told Myanmar Times.

“The demand is so strong we are trying to increase the number of goats on the farms, setting yearly targets,” U Min Hla Aung said.

The farms were started last year with 800 goats and the number has since increased to nearly 6000, he said.

The farms, which will also supply the domestic market, are being developed in Magwe, Mandalay and Sagaing divisions following a trial breeding project at a property owned by the MAPT at Hlegu, about 30 miles north of Yangon.

The trial involved 50 goats and large-scale breeding began when the farms went into production last year.

The MAPT planned to increase the number of goats at the farms to 10,000 by the end of the year and 170,000 by mid-2006, U Min Hla Aung said.

The biggest of the farms, at Meiktila in Mandalay Division, covers 450 acres.

There is a 50 acre farm at Yin-ma-bin in Sagaing Division and a series of smaller properties throughout Magwe Division.

U Min Hla Aung said the farms had been developed in central Myanmar because the weather conditions suited goats.

The farms are being developed by staff from MAPT branches in the three divisions.

U Hla Min Aung said self-financing was one of the three options being used to develop the farms.

The other options were a joint arrangement between the MAPT office in Yangon and individual farms or a partial loan from the agency.

The Yangon head office has so far invested K64.4 million in the project and the investment by divisional branches totals nearly K37 million, said U Hla Min Aung, who expressed confidence that the farms would be profitable.

“Goats breed twice a year and there is no problem with food for the animals,” he said, adding that the MAPT was awaiting approval to begin exports.

An official from the Livestock Breeding and Animal Husbandry Department said most goat farms are small-scale, private sector operations.

Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries figures show that the goat population is the lowest among farm animals. The figures show that Myanmar has slightly more than two million goats, 15 million cattle and nearly five million pigs.