Sheep factories are now returning to normal levels of processing activity following an eight-to 10-day period of working at peak capacity to fill orders for the religious festival of Eid al-Adha.

The strength in demand is reflected in last week’s kill increasing by 19,510 to reach 77,931 head. This figure, which will be by far the highest weekly kill in 2021, does not reflect the strong demand at the end of the previous week or on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

Demand for the festival, which is taking place from Monday to Friday, 19 to 23 July, is reported as being excellent and exceeding expectations.

Peak demand for sheepmeat is concentrated to the first two days of the festival with celebrations and demand easing back significantly thereafter.

This saw factories being particularly busy at the end of last week and over the weekend with reports indicating that every available freight unit was utilised.

Producers will be pleased to see such high numbers of lambs removed from the system and no hangover in supplies present as has sometimes been the case in recent years.

Prices were also positive with a high percentage of lambs traded in a price range of €6.35/kg to €6.55/kg.

There were hopes of prices strengthening as buying for the festival peaked but reports indicate there was resistance to this given that prices are running in the region of €1/kg ahead of 2020 levels.

Quotes for Thursday and Friday have reduced by 20c/kg to 30c/kg, with plants quoting a base price of €6/kg to €6.10/kg and lambs trading from €6.20/kg to €6.40/kg.

With farmers drafting hard and lamb numbers tight, there is confidence in prices steadying while an unusual increase in UK prices post-festival buying also adds more positivity to the trade.