Getting a goat this Christmas

When a buyer decides to opt for goat meat this Christmas season, a number of obvious scenarios not too far from scarcity or price hike may play out. Dei-Dei market in Abuja immediately proves the former wrong. Expecting a rush, the sellers display a variety of goats of different species and varying sizes. This is […]

When a buyer decides to opt for goat meat this Christmas season, a number of obvious scenarios not too far from scarcity or price hike may play out. Dei-Dei market in Abuja immediately proves the former wrong. Expecting a rush, the sellers display a variety of goats of different species and varying sizes. This is where it becomes instantly obvious that the end of year has come.
Inside this market, Iliyasu Abdulsalam rolls up his sleeve to receive customers. Under his wing are rams, cows and goats of various sizes. “Just two weeks ago, the cost of goat meat was not as it is now,” he informs. Buying a goat then cost N16, 000. But now holds at N18, 500 to N20, 000. “There are different sizes of goats, all of which are sold at different prizes,” he adds. But still this does not stop patronage. There is a need and customers flow into the market now and again. “So we still get more patronage during seasons like this,” he shrugs.
Yusuf Ibrahim (not real name), a buyer, is bent on goat meat for the season. His response corroborates that of Abdulsalam. “The Christmas celebration always causes goats and other livestock to get expensive. Before I could buy a large goat for N16, 000 but today it has increased by almost N4, 000. This still does not discourage him because he loves goat meat.
But Kaduna has little to worry about, save for prices. In the city of Jos where bombs exploded recently at Terminus, the business suffers a serious set-back. Thus, any hope for significant sales of goats towards Christmas in the Plateau State capital seems a mere dream.
Isa Adamu, a goat seller at Yan-shanu market was in a sour mood. “The goat business is currently at a standstill in Jos because of the bomb blasts,” he says. “At this time in past years when the month of December has gone midway, residents and people from other parts of the country usually troop into the market for goats and the prices rise, but this time the story is different. Only butchers come to buy the meat to sell to those who visit their stalls mainly for usual domestic consumption.”
Adamu stressed that the prices of goats had not changed even as the festivity approaches. “A small goat is sold between N5, 000 and N10, 000, while an average goat is sold between N10 to N15, 000 and big goat sold for between N20,000 and N30,000,” he said, adding that although they as goat sellers had not lost hope that sales would revive in due course, current anxiety over security was not favourable. “We’re praying that in the remaining weeks of the month and the New Year, things will change and people will come and buy.”
A butcher, Umar Usman, who was in the Yan-Shanu Market where he bought two goats for his stall in Terminus market, said he opened for business only on Monday after the Thursday bomb incident and could not buy more than two goats because sales had been poor. “Many of my customers don’t even know that our part of Terminus has opened after the bomb, so I haven’t been selling much. I just bought these two goats to see how the market will be.”
However, goat sellers in the Kakuri Goat Market are recording brisk business with Christmas coming in a few days. A visit to the market reveals that the celebrations will certainly not be dull for Kaduna residents, as customers were seen buying at least a goat each to celebrate.
Chairman of the Kakuri Goat Sellers Association, Alhaji Muktar Haruna says the season is every goat-seller’s peak period, adding that it is the only time high sales is recorded in that line of business. “Many customers have been trooping in and out of the market in search of a Christmas goat and we have taken it upon ourselves not to make the prices too exorbitant because the market is just a year and four months old. But by the grace of God, it’s recording great success because the market can compete favourably with others that have been in existence. We want to use this period to draw customers,” he says.  
“Prices of goats in this market are between N5, 000 to N25, 000 depending on what the customer can afford. But before now, the goats of N25, 000 were sold at N20, 000, likewise, those sold at N5, 000 today was sold at N3, 000.” Haruna attributes the increase in price to the increase in the cost of transportation and fuel scarcity usually experienced during the period.
“In the past, I bought one goat between N8, 000 to N5, 000,” says a retailer who gave her name simply as Mama CY, who resells at Railway Station Market in Kaduna.  “Now it goes for N12, 000 and so on which is normal for us during this period and every other festive time, but the prices will normalise.”