New Zealand and Australia, two of the biggest players in the EU sheepmeat market, seen the volume of product shipped to the EU decline in 2016.

According to the AHDB (the British organisation for beef and lamb), New Zealand exporters only used 76% of its total sheepmeat quota to the EU.

This is marginally lower (-1%) than the same period in 2015, bringing last year’s total to 172,500t or in the region of 2,270t lower than the year before.

It says that this follows on from tighter supplies on New Zealand for much of 2016, as a result of a smaller lamb crop and drought leading to earlier slaughterings.

The fall in the volume of New Zealand sheepmeat coming into the EU is significant, the AHDB says, as approximately half of the product imported from New Zealand into the EU ends up in the UK.

This could be a potential positive for Irish sheep farmers, as the UK is the second largest export market for Irish sheepmeat – behind only France.

And given that the UK market exported in the region of 1,135t less sheepmeat from New Zealand in 2016, it may have opened up additional avenues for Irish sheepmeat exports to the UK in 2016.

In addition, the AHDB also reports that Australia, which has a much smaller quota for sheepmeat than New Zealand, seen the volume of quota unused increase in 2016 – with some 18,000t of the 19,186t quota being filled in 2016.

Irish exports to France and the UK climb

The AHDB also reports that the volume of Irish sheepmeat exported to both the UK and France climbed during the first three quarters of 2016.

The AHDB says that Irish exports of fresh and frozen product have been above year earlier levels for eight of the nine months in the first three quarters of 2016, with the volume shipped sitting at 35,500t – an increase of 13% on the same period in 2015.

Looking at the volumes of Irish sheepmeat shipped to France, the AHDB says Ireland has been particularly successful in this market, with volumes up 21% during the first nine months of 2016 compared to the same time last year.

Moving on to the UK, it also indicates that the volume of Irish product shipped to our nearest trading partner has climbed in 2016.