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. 2020 Aug 5;10(8):1357.
doi: 10.3390/ani10081357.

Short-Term Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Spanish Small Ruminant Flocks

Irene Vidaurreta  1 , Christian de la Fe  2 , Juan Orengo  3 , Ángel Gómez-Martín  2   4 , Bernardino Benito  1
Affiliations

Short-Term Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Spanish Small Ruminant Flocks

Irene Vidaurreta et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The human pandemic COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) started in China in 2019 and has rapidly spread around the world, leading to extreme control measures such as population confinement and industry activity closure. Although small ruminants are not sanitary affected by this virus, the short-term economic impact derived by COVID-19 on Spanish flocks is estimated in this study, using data provided by producers and two major slaughterhouses. Milk prices of dairy goat flocks suffered a substantial drop in April 2020, close to 4.5 cts EUR/liter compared to the previous month. In contrast, the monthly milk prices in sheep remained almost stable during this period, and even increases of more than EUR 6 cts were reported in comparison with the previous year. Nevertheless, economical differences are reported by areas where producers could receive a higher income, close to EUR 0.3 per liter of milk. Global data provided by feedlots affecting 2750 Spanish flocks evidenced a lamb price drop ranging from 16.8% to 26.9% after the pandemic arrival; in line with the data directly reported by a limited sample of producers (ranging from 11.0% to 23.7%). The goat kid meat market also suffered a reduction in prices per kg, near 12.5%; although, for some flocks, losses reached up to 40%. In the same line, 2 slaughterhouses reported a sudden sacrifice drop around 27% for lambs and goat kids sacrifices in April, in contrast with the usual sacrifice figures from the beginning of 2020. Moreover, our study showed a temporary and unexpected retention of lambs and goat kids at farms due to a reduction in animals slaughtered during this period. In conclusion, data evidenced a considerable negative economic impact on Spanish small ruminant flocks, throughout the first 60 days after COVID-19's pandemic declaration. Further studies are needed to evaluate the long-term economic consequences, in order to establish contingency plans and avoid the collapse of small ruminant industries when a crisis of these characteristics occurs.

Keywords: COVID-19; dairy; economic impact; meat; small ruminants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sheep and goat populations in the studied areas, involving over 80% of the total population [13].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Average monthly price per liter (EUR/L) of sheep (A) and goat milk (B) reported by producers from January to April 2019 and 2020 (coefficient of variation, %), with intra- and interannual comparisons. Data from 23 and 22 dairy sheep and goat flocks, respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Average monthly price per liter of sheep milk (EUR/L) reported by producers from January to April 2019 and 2020 according to area (coefficient of variation, %), with intra- and interannual comparisons. Data from 21 dairy sheep flocks.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Average monthly price per liter of goat milk (EUR/L) reported by producers from January to April 2019 and 2020 (coefficient of variation, %) according to area and breed, with intra- and interannual comparisons. Data from 20 dairy goat flocks.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Average monthly price per liter of goat milk (EUR/L) reported by producers from January to April 2019 and 2020 (coefficient of variation, %) according to area and breed, with intra- and interannual comparisons. Data from 20 dairy goat flocks.
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