Rising Chinese lamb imports will impact global supply
22/08/2013
A delegation from the UK sheep meat industry has just returned from a fact-finding mission to New Zealand where they met farmer, processor and stakeholder representatives to discuss the negative impact price volatility is having for sheep meat producers, wherever they farm.
They agreed to continue to work closely together to try to better anticipate and understand the impact of volatility on their businesses, with increased market access essential to spread the risk.
“New Zealand now has open access to the China market and it is creating a lot of opportunities which they are naturally excited about. There is a huge demand for sheep meat there and it is not just the cheaper cuts as may traditionally have been the case,” said Nick Allen, EBLEX director. “With a 1.4 billion population, it doesn’t need a huge percentage to have rising disposable income to see that the potential demand for higher value cuts is significant and this will impact on supply.
“This increased demand from the Far East will influence the global supply of lamb as New Zealand looks to take advantage of that market - something we cannot yet do. It means we could potentially avoid an unusually high flood of lamb cuts into the UK from New Zealand, as we got over a short period late last year.
“However, we need to work closely with our colleagues in New Zealand to try and anticipate spikes and troughs in supply caused by adverse weather patterns, among other factors.”
The Global Sheep Meat Forum to be held in Brussels later this year will provide another opportunity to continue the discussions on price volatility.
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