Goat sellers out for more than hay at Idul Adha

JAKARTA (JP): Goat sellers have set up shop on streets in many parts of the city with the Idul Adha Islamic Day of Sacrifice only a week away.

The seasonal sellers are back in business for the holiday, which will fall on March 16, and several sidewalks have been taken over as sites for customers to take their pick of the animals.

"We have to use the sidewalks so that prospective customers can easily find places to get goats for sacrifice," said Saipur, who shows his goats on a sidewalk of Jl. Basuki Rachmat in East Jakarta.

Traders acknowledged the possibility of high profits, but said seasonal goat trading held its own risks.

"I have to hire workers to guard the animals from being stolen and also to protect them from rain."

He said goats would immediately fall ill if they were caught in the rain.

Another trader, Agus Salim, of the Menteng area in Central Jakarta, vouched for the animals' susceptibility to illness.

"Frankly, it is better that I myself get caught in the rain than my goats, because I can't sell sick animals to be sacrificed."

Ailing animals and those with physical defects cannot be sacrificed.

Traders also work under the burdensome realization that they will have to eat the losses of unsold goats, which cannot be returned to suppliers.

"The price will plummet, and we will have to sell them at half price to satay food vendors, for example," Agus said.

He said he tried to eliminate the possibility of losses by setting up cooperation agreements with several institutions to ensure he eventually saw the back of each and every animal.

"I have sent proposals to mosques and several offices."

Agus said the goats were obtained from the West Java district of Cicurug near Sukabumi regency.

"There is a goat market in Cicurug which is only open on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is the spot where people from remote areas sell their goats to brokers."

Agus, who started goat trading 10 years ago, said that several months before Idul Adha, traders usually paid deposits to brokers for them to collect goats from residents of remote areas.

Knowing the animals need special care to keep them healthy, Agus described the seasonal business as a "collective" pursuit.

"I recruit six jobless youths to take care of the goats, to guard them day and night, and search for fodder," he said.

Finding food for the animals is a problem in the concrete jungle of the city. Traders come up with ingenious ways to keep the animals well-fed.

"We conduct a 'survey' of houses which have big trees. We ask the owners whether they want their trees to be spruced up, and for them to let us take the leaves," said another trader Ali Yahya, also from Menteng.

"For this year, we already have enough fodder, which is provided at a nearby empty house which has big trees around it. The housekeeper has let us trim some of the trees," said Ali, who prepared about 100 goats for this year's holiday.

A trader from Jatinegara in East Jakarta, Nabila, said food for her animals was easily obtained at nearby Kober cemetery. She quipped she was performing a public service.

"I clear the (cemetery) grass and leaves. In that way, I help clean up the graveyard."

She said the current going rate for goats for sacrifice was between Rp 300,000 and Rp 800,000.

"We can secure a profit of about Rp 50,000 for each of the goats."

But she said the price would soar about one day or two days before Idul Adha. (ind)