As reported on page 6, a trial conducted by scientists at AFBI has shown that there were no discernible differences in terms of tenderness, juiciness or flavour between new season New Zealand lamb, and lamb from hoggets produced in NI. Those hoggets were slaughtered at nine to 12 months of age, and were a mixture of entire rams and females.

They were up against lamb from New Zealand that was five to six months old at slaughter, and had the added benefit of over 45 days of ageing during the transport process. It all pointed to the New Zealand product coming out on top in taste tests. It didn’t.

Yet, for many years, consumers have been fed a myth by a well-funded marketing campaign that New Zealand lamb is a superior product to any out-of-season lamb produced on these shores. The reality is somewhat different. It exposes the fact that New Zealand lamb was traditionally cheaper than UK or Irish lamb, so there was money to be made.

However, in 2017, that trend reversed, with prices driven upwards in New Zealand on the back of tight numbers, and strong demand for mutton in China. No surprise then that UK lamb imports from New Zealand were down 23% in 2017, and are nearly half what they were 10 years ago.

While that points to a positive trend for local sheep prices in 2018, there are also reasons to be concerned. The UK is reliant on sheepmeat exports during times of surplus and to drive domestic prices. Although these exports were up by around 11% in 2017, the majority of this is to EU member states, so the industry is vulnerable to a bad Brexit outcome.

Other concern

The other pressing concern is lamb consumption in the British market, which is estimated to have fallen 8% in 2017. While that can partly be explained by higher retail prices, there is also a fundamental issue with lamb consumption among younger people. Halting that decline is perhaps the greatest challenge of all for the sheep industry.

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