Price rise sees more sheep offered for sale
While the prices were being largely maintained by the processors at last week’s level for the opening days of this week there was a reluctance by some of the factories to set prices for the later days of the week.
The trade opened on Monday with quotes showing no change from last week at a range of 450-465 cents/kg plus the usual bonus payments for quality.
The one exception was an all in price of 470 cents/kg being offered.
However, as in previous weeks the real trade is in the margin being paid over the officially quoted prices which appears to be up to 20 cents/kg although not universally at that scale across the country.
At the mart sales on Monday, where there was a larger sale of 800 head, there was a tougher climate at Kilkenny where the prices peaked at €52 over for the butchers’ lambs and up to €51 over was paid for the factory lots.
At Corrin Mart on Monday some show lambs weighing 51kg sold for €156/head while the more general run of the butchers lambs, among the overall larger entry of 700 head, was around €56-€58 over. The factory lambs peaked at €67 over with the general run in the range of up to €51 over.
In Britain, there was a more buoyant trade last week on the back of higher demand. The lambs were making the equivalent of around 432 cents/kg dw during the week.
In France, trade stayed steady with little further changes expected before the end of the year. Retail promotions were more prevalent and were focused mainly on imported roasts, legs and forequarter cuts. Grade 1 Irish lamb was making around 525 cents/kg (incl Vat) during the week.
