Organic sheep sector aiming for premium price
Though not news to any farmers in this bind, this stark finding for organics was revealed last week in Mallow by Declan Fennell of Bord Bia.
There, at the first of three such events around the country organised by Bord Bia, he outlined the results of research conducted on the organic lamb sector in Ireland.
Of this 28%, 21% are sold as finished and 7% as store animals. The other 72% are sold as conventional, with 37% finished and 35% store.
While the payments per acre are higher in organic and, typically, costs lower (even taking high feed costs into account), it is nonetheless a concern that there is such leakage into the conventional sector. And it’s been a concern for quite a few years.
Drilling down into why exactly 26,476 organic sheep fail to achieve a premium price, some facts and stats stand out. The report flags a difference between lowland and upland:
* Organic lambs from lowland areas are more likely to secure a premium price than lambs from hill areas. Some 31% of organic lambs in lowland areas will secure a premium price (24% as finished, 7% as store) with the balance of 69% sold at conventional prices (41% as finished, 28% as store).
*Â In the case of organic lambs from hill areas, 20% will secure a premium price (9% as finished, 11% as store)
More broadly, the total number of organic sheep stands at 69,907, of which 33,135 were ewes and 36,772 lambs at the time of survey. The median flock size is 80 ewes.
The process of conducting the National Organic Sheep Census involved 447 forms being sent to organic sheep farmers. Of this, an exceptionally high rate of 307 were returned.
Galway, Cork, Kerry and Roscommon have the highest number of organic sheep in Ireland, with just over 40.4% of the national organic sheep flock.
Between these four counties, along with Westmeath, Leitrim, Donegal, and Cavan, almost two thirds of the national organic flock is farmed.
Interestingly, three quarters of the organic farms in question have over 100 sheep. Price premiums are strongest for producers in Wicklow, Dublin, Kilkenny, Meath, Laois, and Wexford in Leinster “due to their close proximity to a certified processor for organic sheep”.
Producers in these six counties “indicated that they will sell more than 40% of their lambs for a premium price, compared to the national average of 28%” according to the report that accompanied the census.
In terms of breeds, the census found Suffolk and Texel breeds accounted for 23% and 20% respectively of the organic ewe flock, with Scottish Blackface also strongly represented at 17%. Texel is the most common breed of ram (24%) followed by Charollais (19%) and Suffolk (18%).
The report from Declan Fennell of Bord Bia concludes with the following critical assessment of the overall organic lamb sector in Ireland.
“Securing a critical mass of finished organic lambs which meet the desired market specification is a challenge for processors and producers in supplying high value markets. In order to achieve the full value potential across the organic supply chain there is a necessity to coordinate the orderly supply of finished organic lambs to the desired market specification to organically approved processors…
“Whilst it is desirable to develop market opportunities against the seasonal supply of finished organic lambs, the market requirement is that most customers require a year round supply. Therefore arrangements between processors and producers need to be put in place to take into account the higher costs of finishing lambs over the winter period.”
It is to these crucial questions for the organic lamb sector in Ireland that this column will turn next week, when key stakeholders in the sector will give their take on what’s working, not working and what could or should happen.
