July 4, 2012

Ireland's sheep meat consumption bucks European trend

As sales well up last year, Ireland's sheep meat consumption has backed the European trend.

Total sales for the last 12 weeks compared to the same period in 2011 were up 16% in value, and 16.5% in volume.

In contrast, total lamb sales in the UK dropped by 20% over the last year.

A marketing forum at Sheep 2012 heard that the increased consumption had been driven by price promotions by retailers and a marketing campaign by Bord Bia.

The sales figures were presented by Declan Fennell of Bord Bia. He also pointed out that the total lamb kill to the end of May was 930,000 head, up 5% on the same period last year.

But it wasn't all good news. Jonathan Forbes, a Kepak buyer, pointed out that 38% of the lambs killed by the processor from January-May were too heavy (over 23 kilogrammes), while 30% were out of spec for fat.

Forbes said that producing lambs that were too heavy, fat or under-finished reduced the market opportunities for this stock.

"Farmers and processors have to focus on producing lambs the markets require," Forbes said.

On a positive note, Forbes predicted that demand for Irish lamb would remain strong.