The importation of lamb from the UK, whether live or in carcass form, was a major talking point and source of frustration among farmers at an Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) meeting on Monday (January 24).
The national sheep meeting, at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Athlone, Co. Westmeath, was organised to send a clear message to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, factories and Bord Bia regarding the crisis currently facing the sheep sector.
Many farmers in attendance had questions regarding the importation of lamb from the UK, which were directed at Bord Bia’s Seamus McMenamin.
McMenamin told the audience: “I went to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and queried the figures of what sheep had been imported.
“[The DAFM] recorded 320,000 sheep coming from Northern Ireland for direct slaughter and 100,000 head for further production.
“However, there was no live sheep recorded as coming from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales).
“I also went to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to ask had they exported any sheep from Great Britain to Ireland and they came back saying none have been,” McMenamin added.
“I’m willing to share those figures with anyone. I also enquired in Northern Ireland what sheep they imported from Great Britain, if any, and it was recorded as 4,500 head for breeding and production in 2022.”
Touching on the importation of lamb in carcass form, Seamus said:
“Carcass-form lamb figures are different. So to deal with that question, what we imported from the UK in carcass and cut-up form was about 8,000t, which is up.
“This, in the context of the overall total Irish sheep kill, would make up 10% in live form and 10% in carcass form.
“There has been a marked decline in imported New Zealand sheepmeat and is now coming from the UK instead,” he explained.