French promotion to help lamb trade

Sheep trends by John Shirley

At last there is some semblance of lamb prices levelling out. Across the East of the country, lamb supply is a light tighter and farmers are getting a flat 406 cent/kg. (145p/lb). This price is harder to get in the west. Some farmers selling to Kepak Athleague were annoyed at being left for hours in the queue outside the factory while Northern Lambs were being put through the plant.

In the UK lambs prices have hardened as the supermarkets at last switch over to new season's product. The start of the Barbecue season has also helped. (Nothing nicer than a barbecued lamb chop!)

On Tuesday 8the June, new season UK lamb fetched Stg129.02p/kg lw (€4.31/kg dw incl VAT), an increase of Stg. 4pence/kg lw (13 cent/kg dw incl.VAT) on the same day last week.

Supplies have also improved by 18 per cent on last Tuesday to 16,900 head.

France

The last couple of days have seen no real change in the French market, except for numbers being supplied holding stronger then would be expected, said Bord Bia> The bulk of the Irish lambs sales in the market are in the range of €3.75-3.80/kg dw, with exceptional lots making €3.90/kg dw.

French Lacaune lamb is in strong competition with Irish product, selling at around €3.40/kg dw.

French and Spanish lamb, in the south is selling in the region of €3.30/kg dw, and is keeping a lot of Irish lamb out of the region.

This week sees the start of a substantial promotion of Irish lamb in France by Bord Bia. Irish lamb is now at the peak of its quality and the French buyers know this. Hopefully prices to the Irish sheep farmer will level out at or close to the €4 a kg.

However a lot of damage has been done to lamb price and to farmer confidence in the future of sheep post decoupling. This week with mart lambs making from €30 to €38 over the €/kg, with the better price paid for heavier lamb, mart mangers report than this is about €7 a head under the mart price of this week last year.