Officials in New Zealand have voiced their unhappiness that the EU and UK have decided to divide the quota previous EU quota for sheep meat between them to reflect the fact that the UK will no longer part of the EU from 1 January 2021.

Up to now, New Zealand sheep meat receieved the most generous EU meat quota of all at 228,000t carcase weight equivalent (CWE).

NZ is of the view that division of the quota between the EU and UK limits its marketing opportunities. Before the split, in theory NZ could send all of the 228,000t to either the UK or EU27, depending on market conditions and the new arrangement will reduce this flexibility.

Not filling quota

There will be no immediate impact on New Zealand's sheep meat exports to either the EU or UK as they haven’t came close to filling their quota over the past five years. According to Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the country exported 39,201t of lamb to the UK and 48,308t to the EU for the year ending 30 September. This is shipped weight of meat cuts, which would represent approximately 74% of the carcase using yield data produced by AHDB, the levy body in England. Working off a 74% yield, it means that just 118,255t of the 228,000t quota was filled for the year ending 30 September 2020.

Trade negotiations

A further factor that will come into play is that both the EU and UK are separately involved in trade negotiations with NZ and this could be a forum to resolve any disagreement on distribution of the previous EU quota. An alternative route for New Zealand would be through the World Trade Organisation for adjudication, but this is likely to be a more prolonged and adversarial option.