The lamb trade remains caught in a downward spiral, with quotes falling by a further 50c/kg on last week’s levels.

Around 20c/kg to 30c/kg of this cut materialised over the weekend for Monday’s kill, with a similar reduction for Thursday’s kill bringing the degree of the latest price cut to an average of 50c/kg. This follows a similar reduction in the previous week, with upwards of €20 being wiped of the value of lambs in a little over two weeks.

Base quotes for Thursday’s kill range from €6.00/kg to €6.10/kg. There are lambs where deals were negotiated earlier in the week trading at €6.45/kg but by and large top prices are now in the region of €6.35/kg while sellers with low negotiating power are faced with returns of €6.10/kg to €6.25/kg for quality assured lamb.

IFA sheep chair Sean Dennehy said: “The IFA sheep committee will meet with factories in the coming days to set out farmers’ frustration at the recent attempts to severely undermine the trade and the need to maximise returns to sheep farmers from a favourable market environment. Farmers must take a stand. We have seen throughout the past year how consumers are prepared to pay the higher prices for high-quality trusted lamb.”

Factories point to a collapse in the British lamb trade as reducing their competitiveness in EU markets and also point to competing price pressure from domestic supplies.

Lamb prices in Britain collapsed last week, with live prices falling by upwards of 50p/kg and deadweight prices falling by 90p/kg to £5/kg or the equivalent of €5.89/kg at 85.8p to the euro.

AHDB reports a stabilisation in the trade and a rebound this week, with the standard quality quotation (SQQ) liveweight price for new-season lamb increasing by 10p/kg to 14p/kg since the end of last week to about £2.55/kg (€2.97/kg), while deadweight prices have rebounded by 20p/kg to 30p/kg to north of £5.30/kg.

The trade in Northern Irish plants has come under further pressure, with quotes for Thursday falling by 20p/kg to £4.80/kg (€5.59/kg). Regular sellers managed to negotiate 10p/kg to 15p/kg higher but are finding it challenging to maintain returns at £5/kg or higher.

Contrasting ewe trade

The ewe trade meanwhile remains robust, with quotes unchanged at a range of €3.30/kg to €3.50/kg. Top prices have been reported at €3.60/kg to €3.70/kg but this has been confined in cases to an upper carcase weight limit of 40kg. Sellers should check carcase weights before moving ewes, with some plants operating an upper limit of 46kg.