The festival, to be held Aug 26-28, this year is to be called 16th Thailand Goat Festival 2019 and Andaman’s Amazing World of Livestock Phuket.
Speaking at launch event complete with small corral of goats on the grass field in front of Phuket Provincial Hall, Governor Phakaphong explained that the annual event is held to support goat farmers across the country.
Goats feed a host of important industries, said Ampan Wentanti, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) and special guest at the event yesterday.
About 377,000 goats are eaten in Thailand each year, with 100,000 exported to Malaysia annually, and about 40,000 to Laos and Vietnam.
“We support all three steps of goat farming: producing, farming and transforming,” Mr Ampan said.
“In the step of farming, we provide support by giving semen to improve the quality of goats reared, especially milk goats, producing plants that serve as quality goat food, and taking care of goats,” he added.
The term “transforming” related to creating a many different products from the goats, Mr Ampan explained.
“For transforming, we support the development of both meat and milk products. Goat milk can be transformed to be ice scream, yogurt, soap and even included in cosmetics,” he said.
“Goat meat can be cooked to become a curry with roti or be served barbecued, and standard farms can effectively strengthen their processes of transforming raw goat into these products,” he added.
The goat festival next month will feature training activities conducted by the DLD, a goat meat cooking competition, academic seminars and network building for goat farmers.
The event will also include the traditional “Goat Angel Competition” beauty pageant and showcase agricultural products.