Dynamics of livestock and production of sheep and goats exploited in farms from Romania

Abstract

With its about 10 million sheep and goats, Romania ranks third in Europe after United Kingdom and Spain.
Though, in Romania, lamb consumption is significant only at Easter, at world level mutton is much
appreciated. In Romania, according to the General Agricultural Census in 2010, there were 8,386,000 sheep,
of which 8,152,000 (97.21%) on agricultural establishments with no legal personality and 234,000 (2.79%)
on legal personality establishments. There were also 1,237,000 goats exclusively on farms with no legal
personality. The domestic market, lamb demand has decreased these last years significantly because of the
decrease of the purchase power of the Romanians and because of the better export price. Demands at world
level ask Romanian sheep breeders to improve their animals in order to produce better meat and milk.
Romania benefits from a series of factors that will allow it, in time, to achieve better performances both
quantitatively and qualitatively, particularly in sheep.