SHEEP AND GOAT BREEDING IN ROMANIA - BETWEEN TRADITION AND CONSUMPTION

The paper highlights the activity of raising sheep and goats in Romania, and the consumption of meat from these categories of animals, in the period 2015-2021, while also sketching the autochthonous ethnographic framework where the economic activity is placed - the tradition records millennial pastoral aspects that are still preserved more or less formally with deep echo in Romanian popular spirituality, reflected in popular beliefs, traditions, customs, folklore. The paper analysed specific indicators of the sheep and goat breeding sector, such as: quantitative fluctuations of the number of sheep and goats; the sheep meat production obtained in slaughter houses; the number of sheep slaughtered in slaughterhouses; the price for sheep meat "per 100 kg live weight" and the average annual consumption, per inhabitant, of sheep and goat meat. The statistical sources for our data are the National Institute of Statistic and Eurostat, as well as other specialized materials. Statistical data showed that in Romania in 2021 there were over 10,000,000 sheep and approximately 1,500,000 goats.