Volumes of sheepmeat imports from New Zealand to Ireland in 2021 witnessed an increase, according to sheep sector manager at Bord Bia, Seamus McMenamin.
However, Bord Bia noted that there has just been a shift in where sheepmeat has been imported from and that the overall tonnage of sheepmeat imported to Ireland in 2021 hasn’t seen an increase.
Seamus was speaking at the Teagasc National Sheep Conference yesterday evening (January 25) which took place online.
The question put to Seamus during the questions and answers session at the end of day one of the conference was the following: What was the volume of sheepmeat imported from New Zealand in 2021 to Ireland?
Seamus said: “The figures we have take us up to the end of November and show that we imported just over 800t of sheepmeat from New Zealand – which represents a bit of an increase from last year.
“Most of what was imported was imported in the first half of the year when we were short of sheepmeat here.
“But when you look at the overall volumes of sheepemat imported from all markets, they have actually declined.
“Every year we are importing around that 6,000t mark of sheepmeat; there has just been a bit of a shift from where it is coming from but no increase in the volume of it.”