Irish sheep farmers have had a year of reasonable farmgate prices, despite the difficulties caused by the global pandemic.

Sheepmeat production is one of the less exposed sectors of Irish agriculture to the UK market, which takes less than 20% of Irish exports.

France remains our most important export market, with the remainder of exports sold in other northern EU countries.

Irish exports in these markets go head to head with competition from the UK and New Zealand (NZ).

The volume of sheepmeat produced in Britain is down 5.6% in the year to the end of August and it follows that less was available for export to the EU.

EU import figures to the end of June are down at 84,715t. This represents a 25% decline in imports from the UK and 20% from Australia and NZ, according to the latest EU short-term market outlook.

Also, within the EU sheep-producing countries, Ireland and the Netherlands were the only countries that had an increase in production, the rest showing a decline, with overall EU production down by 4%.

New Zealand

Beef + Lamb New Zealand reports a decline in the national sheep flock of 2% to 26.2m. It also forecasts that the lamb crop will fall 4% to 22.3m head, a decline of 980,000 on the previous year.

In the year to the end of September, NZ exported 279,426t of lamb, compared with 293,817t in the year to the end of September 2019.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand export figures show that sales to the EU and UK accounted for 82,205t to the end of September 2020, compared with 89,227t in the year to September 2019.

China is now consolidated as the number one export destination for NZ, taking 128,243t in the year to the end of September, marginally below the previous year’s record figure.

Comment

Less production in the EU and NZ at a time when production increased in Ireland created a perfect market opportunity for Irish sheepmeat.

With NZ also prioritising China as its top international market and uncertainty on what terms Britain will be dealing with the EU on after 1 January, prospects for Irish sheepmeat remain positive in the immediate future.