STUDY REGARDING THE TRENDS IN THE WORLD AND EUROPEAN GOAT MILK PRODUCTION

Agatha Popescu

Abstract
The paper aimed to identify the trends in the world and European goat milk production in the period 1999-2010 based on FAOStat data base, using the index method. The results have shown that in 2009, at world level there were 867.9 million goats by 18.91% more than in 1999, and the world goat milk production accounted for 15,128 thousand Metric tones, being by 19.52% higher than at the beginning of the analyzed period. India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan keep 46.7% of the world goat livestock, and 55.60% of the world milk production is produced by India, Bangladesh, Sudan and Pakistan. In 2010, the EU had 13,026 million goats by 9.65% less than in 1999. Greece, Spain and France keep 70% of the EU goat livestock and 0.88% at world level, contributing by 10.57% to the world goat milk production. The EU contribution to the world goat milk production is 17%, being the area where the highest records are achieved per goat. Romania has a high production potential, coming on the 5^th position for the goat livestock and on the 4th one for goat milk production in the EU. As a conclusion, goat milk production will continue to increase due to the high consumption demand.

Key words: goat livestock, goat milk, world production, EU, trends