The drought that is affecting Portugal and the south of the country has caused significant losses in water reserves in the northeast of the Algarve, where goat farmers Nuno Coelho and Nuno Luís have their herds and are trying to maintain their activity, despite the increasing difficulties they are experiencing.

“Things got worse, it rained this weekend, but we went almost a year without, to put it mildly, any significant rain here. The rain now gave some encouragement, to the crops and to the natural pasture itself and this water gave some encouragement and hope because this has been getting worse and worse”, Nuno Coelho told Lusa agency.

This breeder of Algarve goats has been affected by the increase in production costs and the difficulty in valuing the Algarve goats and the milk produced by his herd, which once had 120 goats, was reduced to 60.

Nuno Coelho argued that “the cost of cereals skyrocketed”, especially after the start of the war in Ukraine, causing production costs to rise, which remained “higher than before”, forcing farmers to buy more feed and straw for animal feeding.

“Energy costs are another problem, because (...) three or four years ago it cost around 60 euros, more or less, to farm a hectare of land, and today it costs twice as much”, he explained.

Faced with this scenario, Nuno Coelho recognises that he can only “try to maintain the current situation” and remain resilient.

“We continue with the faith that things will improve in the near future,” he added.