During a recent sheep webinar, Seamus McMenamin of Bord Bia spoke about how China continues to drive the global sheepmeat trade, and how major market players have seen a decline in exports over the past year.

Speaking about China, Seamus said: "China continues to drive the global sheepmeat trade. In 2020, they took a third of global sheepmeat imported off the market.

"While they saw some growth in their own domestic production, as well as a small growth in per capita consumption (+1.4% in 2021) - which has led to a firm consumer demand.

Touching on the UK and how it has seen a decline in exports in 2020, and how it is forecasted to be the same again this year, Seamus added:

"The UK, our biggest competitor on the EU market, saw a decline of 12% in exports to the EU in 2020 - which gave us a great opportunity to gain some market share.

"This is expected to continue into 2021 with a further 4% decline in exports forecasted for 2021 in the UK."

According to Seamus, a similar trend to what has been seen in the UK has also been seen in New Zealand, with exports back in 2020 and expected again, to be back this year.

He explained: "New Zealand saw an overall decline in it's exports in 2020 and this is expected to decline by a further 4-5% in 2021.

"This is off the back of flock rebuilding and a poor lamb crop. While their exports to the EU have steadily declined, as they are becoming directed more so to China/Asian markets."

Percentage of New Zealand exports by destination in 2020:

Lastly, looking at Australia, similar to the UK and New Zealand, a decline in export availabilty was seen in 2020.

Although, unlike the other two major players, Australia is expected to see some recovery this year Seamus said, with increased lamb availability expected.

Furthermore, some flock rebuilding is expected, while it's market share is also on the rise, Seamus added.

Percentage of Australian exports by destination in 2020: