DEER FARMING IN SWEDEN

Karl Vilhelm Beckman

January 2000

For several centuries deer have been kept within fences in special parks for decorative and hunting purposes - in Sweden as elsewhere in Europe. Fallow deer were imported to Sweden, probably from England, around 1580 by King Johan III and quickly became the dominant species, but Red deer of Swedish extraction were also important inhabitants of the parks. In fact Swedish Red deer no doubt were saved from extinction by those few gentry who kept them safeguarded in parks surrounding their manors.

Since 1971 the Swedish Deer Farmers Association (RSH) has been promoting deer farming in Sweden. The original association only had 20 members and today we count close to 10 times as many. Progress in deer farming has been done in several areas and today we can look on ourselves as one of the countries in Europe having regulations which are agreed as reasonable among most farmers.

RSH have made it possible to join a volunteer TB eradication programme which will give Sweden a TB free status by the year of 2005 (?). As a result of the TB eradication programme the number of active deer farmers has decreased and they now number less than 400.

From the year 2000 the Swedish farmers union (LRF) are also supporting the Swedish Deer Farmers Association who are looked upon as one of the possible niche productions making it possible to stay on the farm and have a profitable outcome from it.

Demand and consumption of deer meat are steadily increasing. Prices of farmed deer meat are firm though New Zealand imports are taking most of the market share. As a result and to meet future marketing problems a group of farmers are taking the first struggling steps and have started a profit co-operative. The main challenge in the future will be to organise all the Swedish Deer farmers into marketing companies or groups to get a structured approach to the growing demand of consumers.

National Representatives Sweden