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“The catering has been closed, now we are stupid as a supplier,” laments Heidi Hebesberger, president of the Austrian wild geese association, in an interview with the APA. “We ask consumers to pick up their hen from restaurateurs who offer it to take away or to deliver.”
The free range geese association has about 270 members who raise about 46,000 free range geese. Most of them are killed with martini, only a few thousand for Christmas, explains the rancher. Larger companies in particular, which primarily cater to the catering industry, would sadly not do without financial damage this year, according to Hebesberger. This probably also applies to companies that are not members of the association.
“A few thousand geese” remain in Austria
Austrian country geese breeders have their own parental stock with a kennel. The farmers then source the completely Austrian geese from there, while competitors often have geese from abroad, Hebesberger says. The little geese then live in the grasses for around 20 to 28 weeks before it reaches them. This year many are likely to grow old, because “this year there are still a few thousand geese left.” In any case, the meat is fine-grained, aromatic, and has little frying loss because the geese are slow-feeders and are on the grass all day.
Larger losses for larger grazing goose farms
Larger member companies are likely to be more economically affected than smaller ones, even if we have to wait a bit longer, the expert explained. Smaller geese farmers often only have 50 or 100 geese, which is easier to sell to people or the catering industry, even if they are locked up. The largest farms have around 1,500 animals, on average there are only 150. “I’ve been rotating since the weekend and I’m doing everything in my power so that we can safely leave this year behind,” says Hebesberger.
(Those: APA)
