This week’s sheep trade has seen processors move to take up to 20c/kg off their price quotes for hoggets while spring lamb price offerings have increased by 10c/kg at some sites.
The move by factories to take 20c/kg of their hogget price offering with some factories not quoting for hoggets at all today (Monday, April 29) is being seen by some stakeholders in the industry as an attempt by factories to drive out larger numbers of finished hoggets and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) president, Sean McNamara expects the move to reduce hogget quotes “could be short lived.”
Despite reports of €10.00/kg paid for lambs last week, official factory quotes never actually reached this level and this week is no different with hogget quotes back, but lamb and ewe quotes up.
Irish Country Meats (ICM) is quoting €9.00/kg plus a 20c/kg quality assured (QA) bonus, bringing their offering to €9.20/kg for hoggets up to 23.5kg carcass weight, back 20c/kg from last week.
The sheep factory is quoting €9.30 plus a 20c/kg QA bonus, bringing its offering to €9.50/kg for spring lambs up to 21.5kg.
This is the same price as the factory was offering for spring lambs last week. The ICM price quote for cull ewes is €4.20/kg, up 20c/kg from last week.
Kildare Chilling has said it is not quoting for hoggets today.
The processor is quoting €9.60 plus a 10c/kg QA bonus, bringing its offering to €9.70/kg for spring lambs up to 21.5kg, up 10c/kg from last week.
The processor’s price quote for cull ewes is €4.00/kg plus a 10c/kg QA bonus for ewes, with a carcass weight ranging from 35-43kg.
Price quotes from other outlets are ranging from €9.20-9.30/kg for hoggets, €9.40-9.70/kg for spring lambs and €4.10-€4.30/kg for ewes.
It remains to be seen if the reduction in hogget prices will take hold on the trade or if processors will be forced to return to the higher price rates to secure supplies of factory-fit hoggets.
According to Bord Bia, the strong deadweight trade at the minute is being driven by the tighter supplies of suitable hoggets for processing and spring lambs have been slow to come forward as well.
Demand for lamb on both the domestic and export markets has shown “some signs of recovery” as indicated by Kantar figures and Bord Bia’s own market insights.
However, while consideration for lamb has recorded some improvement in recent months, lamb continues to be the most exposed to shifts in consumer buying habits as the highest-priced protein.
