An abattoir in western Queensland says its future will be jeopardised if a $60 million goat processing plant in northern New South Wales goes ahead.

Goats in holding pens at Western Meat Exporters in Charleville. ( ABC Rural: Lydia Burton )

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 23 seconds 3 m 23 s Western Meat Exporters managing director Campbell McPhee says goat supply in Queensland, NSW and Victoria is too low to accommodate a new abattoir ( Hailey Renault ) Download 6.2 MB

About 70 per cent of the goats processed by Charleville company Western Meat Exporters in 2015 were sourced from producers across the border.

The plant processed 620,000 animals last year for export markets.

The company has concerns about a proposed abattoir development in Bourke, 400km south of Charleville, that recently received a $10 million grant from the Federal Government to help improve infrastructure at the site.

Western Meat Exporters managing director Campbell McPhee said if successful, the project would threaten processing jobs in Charleville.

"We welcome any competition but it has got to be an even playing field," Mr McPhee said.

"It [the grant] is really a shot in the arm we never had, and that we will never get, and it will really be an advantage to what would be our opposition.

"It would be a huge disappointment to see any federal money going into it, unless the Federal Government was looking to do job relocation, because that's what it would boil down to if one became more effective than the other."

Processor questions kill figures

The majority of goats processed in Queensland and New South Wales are feral animals harvested from rangeland areas, where they thrive in tougher country not normally accessible to sheep or cattle.

Mr Campbell said producers in Queensland would not be able to supply enough goats to maintain Western Meat Exporters' slaughter rates if its supply from New South Wales was reduced.

"The Queensland goat numbers aren't where we need them to be," he said.

"At the moment in New South Wales the goats we source go to over seven different plants throughout Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and all of those abattoirs are screaming out for more supply.

"To factor another abattoir into Australia's kill figures, there's not numbers on the ground to support it unless all of the other seven abattoirs said, 'We're not going to do goats anymore' and go give them to Bourke.

"I don't know where they're getting their figures from, suggesting that they'll kill this high rate of numbers, because there's definitely not the supply there."

Consistent supply needed in Queensland

Western Meat Exporters is hopeful a resurgence in the price of goat meat, backed by huge demand from markets like the United States, will encourage producers to have a more consistent supply of goats in Queensland.

Mr Campbell said when the price broke $5 a kilogram, he started getting up to six phone calls a week from producers in his region looking to re-stock their property with goats.

"I hope in the future there is enough graziers that look at goats as a great source of income, at a low cost of production, and get into them because the prices have never been higher," he said.

"If you look at the cold stores you won't see any goat meat bagged up, waiting to find a home.

"Goat meat is in short supply world-wide and Australia has a great area of marginal country which it runs goats quite well."