Increased UK supply has ripple effect in Ireland
The trade for lambs weakened through the second half of last week with the trend continuing into the early days of this week, when the base prices ranged from 336 to 353 cent/kg (120p to 126p/lb).
Farmers have been reluctant to accept the lower price quotes and have been bargaining hard to get somewhere in the middle of the range, even holding back their lambs to secure a recovery in price, often a very effective tactic for them.
More lamb supplies in Britain over recent weeks weakened UK prices last week and hit the price for lamb in France also.
Prices fell through the week to conclude at the equivalent of 339 cents/kg (121p/lb).
Demand for lamb in France has shown a slight increase as expected with the end of the holiday season and the return to school. The difficulty is that increased exports from Britain put downward pressure on prices, at a time when it was expected that prices should be improving.
The home demand for lamb has continued strong and the Bord Bia campaign to promote light mountain lamb should further help to maintain demand.
In the marts, supplies have been strong this week and prices have been holding steady. Athenry Mart had a bigger sale on Monday, with prices stable.
Butchers’ lambs sold for up to 36 over 1/kg.
There were more than 2,000 head on offer at Kilkenny, where butchers’ lambs made up to 31 over.
