Weak returns as lamb output falls
Lower production has meant lower exports to the key market destination, France, and the trend has ruled out over-supply as the underlying reason for the weaker returns.
Survey findings on consumer expenditure on lamb meat and household volume purchases, which are due later in the year, will be awaited with interest to cast some light on another angle of the market.
There have been signs over the past year of a consumer tightening on the family spend on red meats, leading to a lowering of volume purchases as price increased, and at best total expenditure remaining static or slightly in decline.
Beef has also been experiencing the same trend, while pork made some gains in volume of sales — without an increase in the family spend — after market prices for pork dropped.
Although the cost of food has dropped, relative to incomes, consumer resistance to any increase spend on food is beginning to show.
France imported around 137,000 tonnes of lamb meat in 2006.
Britain was the largest import supplier at around 58,000 tonnes.
Ireland and New Zealand supplied around 30,000 tonnes each, with much smaller supplies from Spain, the Netherlands and Australia.
Meat and Livestock Commission figures for the first quarter of 2007 show that exports from Britain have fallen by 19%.
France accounts for 75% of total export sales and the shipments to that market fell by 16% during January to March 2007.
Throughput at British meat plants was 10% lower for the quarter and recovered slightly to a current deficit of 6.5%. Lamb supplies to Irish factories year to date are down over 12% and throughput at Northern Irish plants is down over 13%.
