Ten days of protests against low farmgate prices for livestock farmers have been adding to existing difficulties for the Irish lamb trade to France.

“From a logistics perspective, trade has already been disrupted by issues at the port and tunnel in Calais for the last month or so,” Noreen Lanigan, the head of Bord Bia for France and Belgium, told the Irish Farmers Journal in reference to disturbances involving migrants and police at the main terminal connecting the UK and the continent.

Pickets and supermarket raids by protesting farmers singling out imported meat and dairy products have compounded transport problems.

“There’s pressure on a lot of our French customers to support the French farmers’ movement,” Lanigan said. “That has a knock-on effect and is making it difficult to sell an Irish imported product into the market.”

However, she does not see government appeals to turn away from imported products as a long-term trend. “I’ve seen them make statements like that in the past and we’ve turned things around,” she said.

The underlying sluggishness of the French market is of greater concern. “Here, we talk about food deflation rather than inflation, and certainly a lot of categories including meat aren’t performing well,” Lanigan said. “Lamb was the worst affected, down 15.8% volume-wise and 2.9% in price” in Kantar data for French consumption in May, she added.

Listen to the full interview with Noreen Lanigan below, or click here if you cannot play the podcast

Meanwhile, the IFA's national sheep chairman, John Lynskey, said his organisation had been in contact with the FNO (French Sheep Farmers Association) and Bord Bia over concerns regarding disturbances on the French market for Irish lamb.

Lynskey stressed that reports from France indicate the focus of the protests is more on pigmeat, beef and dairy and less so on lamb.

At home, he said supplies remain very tight at the factories and prices are holding up at €4.70 to €4.80/kg this week. In

In the UK, the IFA said prices at the marts are varying from £1.44 to £1.48/kg live weight, which is the equivalent of €4.60 to €4.80/kg including VAT. Factory prices are higher, ranging from €4.80 to €5.00/kg.

John Lynskey said the IFA has also being in contact with An Bord Bia and the key retailers about promotions on the domestic Irish market. He said there is a real opportunity to promote more strongly here.

Meat Industry Ireland's director Joe Ryan told the Irish Farmers Journal on Wednesday that the market situation in France had deteriorated further in recent days, turning into "effective retailer shutdown" for Irish meat exporters. He added that UK lamb was "suffering the same fate", raising concerns about outlets for all products concerned.

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