After following a softer trend for the past four months, goat prices improved slightly last week with the eastern states goat over the hook indicator reaching 874c/kg cwt.
Goat prices remain historically very high and are currently 62 per cent above this time last year but the market has come off the boil slightly since peaking at 940c/kg in June.
Campbell McPhee runs the Charleville-based goat and sheep processing facility, Western Meat Exporters, in western Queensland.
The facility kills around 2000 goats and up to 2000 sheep and lambs five days a week, sourcing small stock from across Queensland and northern NSW.
Mr McPhee said it was promising to see goat prices so high.
"If we think back six years ago when the goat sector was the lowest value in the red meat sector and then look at what's happening now it's terrific," he said.
"I think the happy medium - happy for both the customer and the producer - is probably for goat prices to sit somewhere between mutton and lamb prices.
"At the moment because of increased demand into the (United) States and the slowish supply we have seen, goats go past lamb prices at times."
Mr McPhee said it was the role of industry to now ensure that goat prices remained strong.
"The market has been strong for three or four years and one of our jobs is to keep it strong otherwise we lose that incentive for graziers to keep investing in their flocks."
Meat & Livestock Australia said for the week ending 1 November, eastern states goat slaughter totalled 18,600 head, back 5pc on the previous week, although 49pc above year-ago levels.
"As the national herd has a large composition of rangeland goats, slaughter throughput can often be volatile as harvesting musters occurs opportunistically, making it difficult to supply consistent numbers," Meat & Livestock Australia reported.
"With the ongoing dry conditions decreasing the rangeland population and the high slaughter seen in previous months, the decline in slaughter figures since August is not unexpected."
Goatmeat exports for the year-to-October totalled 18,000 tonnes, a decrease of 3pc on the same period last year.
The US continues to be the largest market for goatmeat exports, the destination for 70pc of exports for 2019 to date, while Taiwan, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago and Canada also remain key export markets.
Following OTH price movements, export levels for 2019 peaked in July, before easing in the subsequent months, as the primary goat producing regions have been unable to maintain supply while they continue to endure harsh drought conditions.