Sheep trade: Suez Canal shipping issues driving hogget prices
Issues with the supply of lamb from New Zealand to the United Kingdom (UK) is having a knock-on effect with the sheep trade in Ireland.
Shipping through the Suez canal has recently become impossible for some ships, which have instead re-routed around the Cape of Good Hope in the south of Africa.
However, this has made the import of New Zealand lamb to the UK expensive, with Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) president Sean McNamara telling Agriland that it is “cheaper to buy the lamb here [in Ireland]”, as opposed to shipping it from the southern hemisphere, which has driven Irish prices up.
McNamara said that the top prices for hoggets this week in the sheep trade are ranging from €7.80-8.10/kg, adding that the trade is “very good” at the moment.
A factory procurement manager told Agriland that currently, “demand is good and the supply is half-decent”.
They added that many of the sheep coming into the factories lately are store lambs that were bought, and that these farmers who bought the stores are now bringing in a “scatter of heavy and a scatter or light” weight hoggets.
They said this particular trend, “seems to be the way this time of year”.
Read full article Share on twitter