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Commercial Boer Buck Priced at Affordable Levels
Rene Almeda
February 2, 2010
People would always asked us at Alaminos Goat Farm, Rene why did you lower the price of your Commercial Boer Bucks, is there a glut in the market? Why the drastic cut in prices why not Php 20,000 or lower at Php10,000?
Our answer is, there is a very big market for Boer Bucks in the Philippines waiting to be tap, we have only touched 1 %, ( A and B market)the commercial raisers, the remaining 99% (C and D market) the farmers are there for the taking.
At the peak of Boer Sales in 2006, the market were buying between Php 30,000 to Php 50,000. Way back then, we saw potential buyers who will buy if the price range were between Php 8,000 to Php 15,000. It was a question of affordability, if prices comes down to reasonable level you create a new and a much bigger market for Boers bucks.
In 2008, when the market started to level off we did promos during the lean months we did the 20% off listed price promo and in early 2009 buy a pair of Boer Bucks for the price of one. The promotional campaign did wonders to our Boer buck sales and proved to be very successful. It confirmed our observation that a big market is waiting to be tap, if the prices of Boer Bucks would become affordable and reasonable.
In determining the prices for our Commercial Boer Bucks (CBB), we decided at Php 15,000 pesos which was 50% off our selling price. At this price level, we feel it will be economically sustainable for us in the long term as a breeder. To give those who still could not afford the price an opportunity to buy, we offered an even lower price of Php 12,000 pesos for the younger CBB’s aged below one year old.
The next question is, can most of the farmers afford it at Php 15,000 pesos? Isn't it still to high for them to afford? A segment of that 99% can afford it, the progressive goat farmers, for the rest you will need a conduit. The conduit would be the progressive LGU units who are adept in helping the farmers in the community through livelehood project. Non Government Organizations (NGO) who does projects for poverty alleviation. State Colleges and Universities are one of our most loyal customers through the years.
As a breeder, Alaminos Goat Farm (AGF) have done its part in helping develop the goat raising industry in the Philippines. We now challenge government to do its part by helping the goat breeders in Luzon by lifting the ban of shipping breeder goats to the Visayas and Mindanao because of FMD issues. This would open a wide market for Luzon Breeders and if government pursues this, exports of breeder Boer goats to Malaysia and other countries in Asia are a distinct possibility in the near future.
We would like to bring the issue of adaptability to the tropical condition in the Philippines when deciding to buy imported or Island born Boers. The quality of Island born Boers produced by local breeder are very competitive with the imported Boers with the added advantage of being adapted to the local environment and very competitive prices.
As a policy government should look at the advantages of buying the island born Boer Bucks instead of the expensive imported Boers in their goat development program. Price wise they can buy more island born Boers and reach more farmers. This would be a big boost for the local breeders of Boer goats in the Philippines.
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