A meeting between Bord Bia, Irish Country Meats (ICM), DAFM, organic certifying bodies, Teagasc, Good Herdsman Ltd and organic producers in Claremorris on Tuesday night highlighted plenty of challenges in developing a road map to increase the volume of organic lamb commanding a premium.

At present, only one in three organic lambs produced command a price premium. ICM is currently the main player in the processing market and is looking to expand its business by increasing throughput from western regions.

According to ICM’s James Smith, the company is considering processing lambs in Navan, having already achieved a license with the biggest challenge to grow markets being able to supply lamb on a year-round basis.

For farmers, there are three main challenges. Price is a big concern, with the 15% organic premium over the weekly base price not seen as large enough to encourage farmers to carry lambs over the winter for finishing in the first five months of the year. Reducing the length of time it takes to get lambs killed and transport costs were also raised as significant issues.

Teagasc sheep seminars

Teagasc is holding a range of regional sheep seminars over the coming weeks, with topics focusing on current issues such as finishing lambs, market and policy updates, research updates and many other topics.

Events details can be found here. Taking place is a sheep meeting at 7.30pm tonight (Thursday) in Inishowen Co-op, Carndonagh, Co Donegal.

A meeting also takes place next Wednesday 7 December in Ballybofey, Co Donegal, followed by a meeting in Corrin Mart, Fermoy, Co Cork, on 8 December, both at 8pm.

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Premium price challenge for organic lamb