The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that lamb prices are continuing to rise as factories struggle to match supplies with market demand.
IFA Sheep chairman, Sean Dennehy said lamb price has increased by 30c/kg over the past week.
He said lambs are making from €6.70/kg to €6.80/kg today (Monday, November 1), with weights of 22.5kg and 23kg offered.
Higher deals are available for groups and larger lots. Cull ewes are making €3.00/kg to €3.30/kg in general.
Sights now on €7.00/kg lamb price
Dennehy added that some lambs bought by factories are coming in at the equivalent of €6.90/kg, with farmers’ sights now on the €7.00/kg target.
“Good quality fleshed lambs are very scarce on the ground and factories are having to compete to secure supplies to meet the strong market demand for sheepmeat,” he said.
The mart trade has also strengthened for all types of sheep with competition between factory agents, wholesalers and butchers, with factory agents also competing for short keep stores to secure numbers.
Dennehy said the strong store trade is ensuring farmers are under no pressure to ‘offload’ lambs to factories that will take more feeding. He said that this ensures the supply-demand balance remains in farmers’ favour.
The IFA Chairman said reduced volumes of sheepmeat imports from outside the EU to key export markets will underpin the trade for the remainder of the year.
Combined with the anticipated tight supplies of lamb, this is expected to drive the trade over the coming weeks.
The IFA is advising farmers to sell hard in this positive market environment, while moving lambs as they become fit to maximise returns.