Bakra Eid around the corner, demand for goats picks up

The local sellers who have their meat shops in the city are selling the goats for anywhere between Rs 9,000 and Rs 25,000. One of the local vendors, Shakeer Mohammed, said, “Prices of the goats remain the same but the vendors who come from far-off places sell them off at much higher prices. The goat that we are selling at a price of Rs 15,000, they have tagged it for Rs 22,000.”

On the daily sale of the goats, another vendor, Jugnu, said, “We are managing to sell approximately 150 goats daily. The demand for the goats will continue till few hours from Eid namaaz. While the residents buy the goats from us, they give us the booking amount in advance to slaughter (halal) the goat.”

The vendors say that every year, around 3,000-4,000 goats are brought to Manimajra alone and they have to take back only few of them, as many residents even buy five to six goats for the family.

There are some customers who prefer a reasonably priced goat while there are some who would look for the goat’s colour, height and health and the price does not matter to them. “For such customers, we have a variety of goats, starting from Rs 25,000,” said a vendor from Muzaffarnagar.

The response is equally good in Bapu Dham, where the local traders have fallen short of goats. One of the traders from Himachal Pradesh, Ashoor, said, “I had deliberately brought over 350 goats and after a week’s time, I am left with 20 of them. The number of buyers has considerably increased this time.”

With the goat vendors selling the goats at higher prices, price of the regular meat has also increased in the market. The regular meat which was sold at Rs 240 per kg is being sold at Rs 320 these days while the sacrificial goat meat will be sold for Rs 750 per kg.