Factories Undermining Sheep Trade
IFA Sheep chair Adrian Gallagher has hit out at the undermining of the sheep trade by factories.
He said numbers of lambs are scarce. Prices in our key markets are upwards of a €1/kg ahead of our prices.
The behaviour of factories over the past few weeks is unacceptable and risks undermining the marketplace and eroding confidence.
Adrian Gallagher said factories must be more responsible in their pricing of lamb, reflect the costs and input of farmers and stand firm to return these costs in lamb prices.
The IFA sheep chairman said factories have moved too far and too soon on lamb price and have effectively led the price down. This must stop.
“Farmers should sell hard. Lamb numbers are scarce and factories, despite their negative propaganda need the lambs to supply key customers.”
He said this undermining of the trade also runs the risk of impacting negatively on the store lamb trade when it starts later in the year. Store sellers had a difficult year last year and did not see any of the benefits of the higher sheep meat prices earlier in the year. This is an important sector in the supply chain who are in an extremely vulnerable position and need strong returns in store sales this year.
The IFA sheep chairman said factories have a key role to play in this and it must start with prices that reflect the full value of the markets we are trading in.
