Beef cattle farming develops in Latvia

Beef farms are increasingly developing in Latvia. The number of cattle is increasing and consumption trends are also changing, with people increasingly choosing beef.

The rise in demand has also contributed to the creation of two new co-operatives, bringing together several organic cattle farmers. They are currently developing direct sales and bringing products to the consumer's doors, but in the future, they aim to reach an assortment of shops.

In total, there are 4,000 biological farms in Latvia, of which approximately 760 are active in organic cattle farming. Gustavs Norkārklis, head of the Latvian Association of Biological Farms, said that in Latvia there are more cattle farms in total but the majority choose to go the organic farming route. The number of farms is increasing slowly, and in recent years the number of market participants has stabilized.

"A couple of years back there was a faster growth of popularity in meat-cattle production. Very many areas were recovered. Grasslands, where it is harder to deal with other industries, then many chose to grow meat cattle. [..] But the trend in recent years is that more and more farms are fattening cattle and marketing meat in both the domestic and export markets with higher added value," Norkārklis said.

There are currently 80 thousand meat cattle of different breeds in Latvia, and the number of animals is increasing annually, so the potential is very high. Norkārklis pointed out that in Latvia, traditional residents consume more pork and poultry, but in recent years demand also changes in favour of beef consumption.
Two new cooperatives – GreenBeef.lv and Latvijas liellops – have developed over the last year. LV and Latvian cattle. Several cattle farms have joined together.

“Cooperatives have been building up for years, but failing. Now two have come up again. I hope that the activities of these cooperatives will be successful and will facilitate the placing of organic beef on the market. On an individual basis, it is very difficult to enter the market, and cooperation is one of the solutions to supply the necessary volumes, the amount needed at a certain time,” Norkārklis said.

Source: eng.lsm.lv