A mood of depression continues around forequarter manufacturing beef, while the approach of Easter gives some hope for roasting and steak cuts. Traditional roasts really now only come into play on special occasions, such as Christmas and Easter – for much of the rest of the year, they are a problem to move.

The optimism in the trade about the USA taking large volumes of forequarter beef is disappearing and this coincides with difficulties in Asia, with big backlogs in Hong Kong and Vietnam causing problems with containers not being offloaded and therefore shipping blockages and rapidly filling cold stores at home. On top of the USA not happening for forequarter manufacturing, the other star performer of the later part of 2014, the Philippines, has cooled considerably as its attractive prices for higher fat content manufacturing beef attracted plenty of interest and supplies.

The lamb trade is driven by tight supplies and with Easter looming it is a positive picture at present.

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