The latest reductions for spring lamb and hogget prices from factories have been met with concerns from those in the sheep sector.
The sheep trade this week has seen spring lamb and hogget prices take a hit as factories have moved towards lowering their offerings to farmers.
Since May 20, just a month ago, prices for spring lambs have dropped from between €0.85-1.00/kg in cases.
With some factories paying up to 21.5kg, this is representing a loss of up to €21.50/lamb in the space of a month.
Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) sheep chair Adrian Gallagher has said today (Friday, June 21) that factories have “moved too far and too soon on lamb price and have effectively led the price down,” and added that “this must stop”.
Gallagher said numbers of lambs are “scarce” and that prices in key markets are “upwards of a €1/kg ahead of our prices.
“The behaviour of factories over the past few weeks is unacceptable and risks undermining the marketplace and eroding confidence.
Gallagher said factories must be “more responsible” in their pricing of lamb, reflect the costs and input of farmers and “stand firm” to return these costs in lamb prices.
“Farmers should sell hard. Lamb numbers are scarce and factories, despite their negative propaganda need the lambs to supply key customers.”
The IFA sheep chair said this “undermining” of the trade also runs the risk of impacting negatively on the store lamb trade when it starts later in the year.
“Store sellers had a difficult year last year and did not see any of the benefits of the higher sheep meat prices earlier in the year.
Gallagher previously told Agriland that “lamb finishers at the start of the year [2023]…made big losses”.
Today, Gallagher said that these sellers in particular are “an important sector in the supply chain who are in an extremely vulnerable position and need strong returns in store sales this year”.
The IFA sheep chair said factories have a key role to play in this and it must start with prices that reflect the full value of the markets the sector is trading in.