Keenan McRoberts

Keenan McRoberts Problem Articulation: Communities in the Gavilanes River micro-watershed of Veracruz, Mexico’s highlands face numerous challenges to make traditionally subsistence agricultural livelihoods more competitive in a dynamic market environment. Specialized goat cheese production in Veracruz’ rural highland communities could provide an opportunity to increase household profits. Community members in Micoxtla, one community in the Gavilanes River micro-watershed, have identified the low price of cheese as a processing and marketing problem by stating, “We don’t know how to prepare cheese well and don’t have a place to sell it.” (INIFAP baseline study, 2004) Assessment of the feasibility of value-added goat’s milk production, processing, and marketing, will provide a case study for the potential benefits and potential pitfalls of this strategy. Currently, only one type of traditional fresh cheese is produced in the communities. Prices are low and profits are negligible. The current market price for milk and traditional milk products is approximately 3.4 to 4.0 pesos/liter. (Williams et al., 2006) Within rural communities, the traditional fresh cheese will still remain important as a form of diet diversification to contribute to food security in the communities. However, in order to compete in evolving regional markets, farmers must produce a differentiated product or a variety of different options that would have to be evaluated for consumer acceptance. Micoxtla farmers have expressed an interest in learning to produce new types of goat cheese with the objective of increasing profits from goat milk. This strategy will be considered here.