As the Chinese mark ‘the Year of the goat’ – the country’s New Year in 2015 in less than a month – Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Ekwow Spio Garbrah has urged local entrepreneurs and farmers to start rearing goats for export to the Asian country.

Speaking shortly after Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Ms. Sun Baohong had announced her country’s forthcoming ‘year of the goat’ to an audience at the 3rd edition of the Ghana economic outlook and business strategy conference of 2015 held in Accra Wednesday on the theme:

“Diversifying Ghana’s economy through sustained export trade”, Spio Garbrah said: “In fact, the idea about the ‘year of the goat’ is not for you to go and eat pepper soup and goat meat, which is what Ghanaians will do.”

“What the Chinese Ambassador is telling you is that this is a time for any smart Ghanaian to rear goats and export them to China.

“So when you hear such things, you interpret the export orientation in the statement,” the former flagbearer-aspirant said.

In his view, rearing goats for export to China and other countries will help diversify Ghana’s export sector.

“We have been for some time now the world’s largest exporter of yam, people don’t know that because we keep thinking about cocoa and gold.

“We are not the largest producer of yam but we happen to be the largest exporter, and so we can do goats as well,” he said.

The goat comes 8th in the Chinese zodiac animals which are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

According to Chinese astrology, each year (starting from Chinese New Year) is associated with an animal sign, occurring in a 12-year cycle.