The supermarket chain has made the commitment that from 1 July onwards they will only stock lamb that is 100% British on their shelves. They have also promised to only supply 100% new-season lamb.

In a statement, the supermarket said that the move “will provide customers with quality, tender lamb throughout the 2017 season, as well as bolstering the supermarket’s support for the British lamb industry”.

The move comes after growing pressure has mounted on British supermarkets to focus on home-produced lamb. Earlier this year, the UK’s fifth-largest supermarket chain, Co-op Food, banned all fresh New Zealand lamb due to increased lobbying from the British Sheep Association.

Growing discontent

There has been growing discontent from British sheep farmers, particularly in relation to lamb promotions run around the Easter period each year, offering discounted prices for imported.

Earlier this year, another British supermarket chain, Waitrose, came under pressure to change the labelling of some of its ready-made lamb meals. The products originally labelled as ‘Waitrose British’ were found to contain New Zealand lamb. The pressure led to the products being re-branded as ‘Classic’ as opposed to ‘British’.

The outcome of Brexit may have a large impact on the sheep industry both in Ireland and the UK. In a wide-ranging address to the AHDB Meat Exporters Conference yesterday, Minister George Eustice said that in a worst case scenario of no free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU, there would be support for the sheepmeat sector from the British government.

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