Lamb prices steady after drop

Lamb prices at the factories were steadier yesterday after regaining the drop of the previous day, but the demand remained light.

Kepak’s factories at Hacketstown and Athleague were among the few processors slaughtering yesterday.

They were quoting up to 370 cents/kg as base prices at the Hacketstown plant, unchanged from the same day last week. The base at Kepak in Athleague was 358 cents/kg marking a recovery of 5 cents/kg on Thursday’s price, but still 6 cents/kg lower than the same day last week.

Beef stocks in intervention are being reduced by sales out of storage over the past six months of both boneless and bone-in beef. Of the 259,000 tonnes which went into intervention storage in 2002, sales out of storage for the year to date have amounted to 120,000 tonnes. Over a full year, from June 2002 to date, sales have amounted to 167,000 tonnes. Bone in beef sales over 12 months amounted to 104,000 tonnes and 63,000 tonnes of boneless beef.

Sales of intervention out of storage in Ireland was at the bottom of the league amounting to 6,453 tonnes of boneless beef, compared to France at 351,997 tonnes of which 14,353 tonnes was bone-in beef. German sales amounted to 42,366 tonnes, of which 30,662 tonnes was bone-in beef and 11,704 tonnes was boneless.

Martin Ryan