Sheep price cuts 'defy logic' as supply 'collapses' - ICSA
The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) has said any move by processors to cut lamb prices next week will "rightly infuriate sheep farmers".
According to ICSA Sheep Committee chair Willie Shaw, supplies of lambs have "collapsed".
“It is one thing getting a bad price when there is an oversupply - but getting a bad price when there’s an undersupply is something else entirely,” he said.
“We are in the middle of a supply collapse. New figures show that throughput is down 16% for the year, yet Irish processors are threatening more cuts.
"It defies logic, fairness, and any sense of a functioning market - and it’s driving the sector over the edge," Shaw added.
According to the latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) 36,643 sheep were slaughtered last week,
The ICSA said that this is down 1,588 head on the previous week, and nearly 11,000 fewer than the same week in 2024.
Year-to-date throughput is down 232,921 head, which is on top of a drop of over 370,000 head in 2024.
“In just 18 months, over 600,000 fewer sheep have been processed as farmers cut back or exit the sector entirely because the figures don’t stack up.
"Meanwhile, the processors just carry on regardless, conjuring up excuses to slash prices further.
"Farmers in France and Spain are getting up to €1.40/kg more at the minute. Here, we’re facing another cut. How can anyone justify that?” Shaw said.
The ICSA Sheep chair said that he could not remember a time when beef prices were higher than lamb.
"Lamb has always carried a premium due to its seasonality and lighter carcase.
"The fact that cattle are now pulling ahead says it all - sheep farming is being slowly eroded into oblivion.”
“Things are reaching a tipping point for the sheep sector. Policy makers and processors alike need to wake up and start valuing the sector and the labour-intensive work sheep farmers do before it is too late," he said.
