Mah Boonkrong Dairy Goats Co, the country's largest full-scale dairy goat farm, is developing a new goat breed to be exported to other countries in Southeast Asia and plans to increase its goat herd to 100,000 dairy goats over the next five years from 7,000 currently.
``The consumers' response for goat milk has been overwhelming due to its rich nutritional value and the fact that it is more easily digestible that cow milk,'' said president Sirichai Bulakul, a former major shareholder of MBK Development Plc.
Sales of the company's goat milk sold under the Sirichai Goat Milk brand, which was launched just late last year, are now about 13,000 190cc-bottles a day. A bottle costs 20 baht.
The company expects sales will climb to 25,000 bottles a day by June, and reach up to 40,000 bottles day by the end of the year.
According to Mr Sirichai, the company also plans to add retail sales of yogurt to its portfolio.
It has invested around 38 million baht on facilities capable of producing 3,000 cups of yogurt and 15,000 bottles of yogurt per day. The new products will hit the market next month, mainly through free home delivery.
The company currently has more than 7,000 regular customers in Greater Bangkok and major provinces including Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Phitsanulok, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Songkhla.
It plans to increase the home delivery services to cover all provinces next year.
According to Prasong Klaimee, the company's feed manager, Mah Boonkrong Dairy Goats plans to increase its number of milk goats to up to 100,000 to produce about 200 tonnes per day over the next five years.
The company has a 2,000 rai farm at Thong Paphum district in Kanchanaburi province. It currently has 7,000 milk goats which produce 2.5 tonnes of milk per day.
Mr Prasong said the milking capacity of the goats remained relatively low at only about two kilogrammes per animal because of Thailand's hot weather.
Some 2,760 of the goats are the Saanen breed imported from Australia, New Zealand and China, which the company plans to breed with an indigenous breed with hopes of developing a goat that can adapt better to Thailand's weather and provide more milk.
According to Mr Prasong, the company expects to be able to achieve this new breed, to be marketed under the Sirichai Breed, over the next six years.
Suravut Bulakul, the company's executive president, said Mah Boonkrong Dairy Goats was also working on developing a variety of cosmetic products made from goat milk including lotion and moisturiser.
However, the cosmetic products are unlikely to be manufactured in the near future as the milk production capacity remains low.
Mr Suravut said that a linkup with the Charoen Pokphand Group was likely in the future particularly to supply goat meat.
A fully grown goat produces milk for eight years. Afterward, the goat could raised to sell its meat commercially, he said.
