Lamb supplies in Britain to rise 8%

Marts: Lamb supplies in Britain are expected to increase by 8% for the second half of the year, as production continues to recover.

The latest forecast from the Meat and Livestock Commission predicts lamb production, which increased by about 2% during the first half of the year, will return an 8% increase over 2002 levels for the second half of the year.

Consumption of sheepmeat was down by 2% for the first half of the year, but with an increase predicted for the second half, is expected to remain similar to 2002 for the year as a whole. Exports of sheepmeat are forecast to show an increase of 13% for the year. British imports of sheepmeat for the first five months of the year were marginally higher than the corresponding period in 2002, with 80% of the total volume of imports being supplied by New Zealand.