The number of sheep imported to Ireland from Northern Ireland in 2022 was recorded at 422,097 by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

This includes 336,677 sheep imported for direct slaughter, which represents an increase of 16,203 head on 2022 levels.

As demonstrated in Figure 1 (below), this increase was mainly in the first half of the year and contributed to the 200,000 head increase in hogget throughput.

There was a greater numerical increase in the number of sheep classified under the heading of breeding/store sheep imported to farms in Ireland.

This figure was recorded at 85,420 and represents an increase of 33,576 head on 2022 levels, as detailed in Table 2 (below).

It is expected that the majority of these sheep were also slaughtered in Ireland and, if so, sheep imported from Northern Ireland accounted for 14% of the sheep kill in 2022.

Northern Ireland throughput

The sheep kill in Northern Ireland recorded an increase in 2022, but at a much lower level than the increase in exports.

As detailed in Table 1 (below), the number of sheep processed was recorded at 469,119 head, an increase of 17,722 sheep, or a 4% rise, on the year previous.

This was driven by an increase in hogget/spring lamb throughput, with the ewe and ram kill easing by 2,492 head to 27,723.

There were more sheep processed outside of Northern Ireland than there was in Northern Ireland abattoirs in 2022.

The number of sheep exported to farms in Britain also recorded a significant increase of 38,166 head (88,802), as detailed in Table 3.

This is in contrast to the number of sheep exported from Northern Ireland to Britain, which reduced by 8,737 head to 23,420.

When combined, the number of sheep exported out of Northern Ireland to Ireland and Britain totaled over 530,000 head compared with the kill figure of almost 470,000 head.