UK hopes to fill China’s meat gaps
22/09/2014
The English association has said China’s rapidly growing middle class and resulting demand for red meat means potential returns could be tens of millions of pounds per year to English companies – should an export deal for lamb and sheep be negotiated.
“Wages are rising by 13% a year and demand for lamb is expected to hit one million tonnes by 2020. The potential is significant if we can secure market access and English producers and processors will be the big winners,” said Chris Lloyd, EBLEX industry development manager.
“We do need to properly understand the Chinese sheep sector and its current supply chain to see where our own producers could fit in and how that would be best achieved. For instance, with lamb production being cyclical, there may be periods where their supply is shorter and that it something we may be able to capitalise on.
“The Far East is already the second largest export market for lamb, after France, even without access to mainland China, which may still be several years away.”
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says China’s lamb and mutton imports have grown from 60,000 tonnes in 2010 to 254,400 tonnes in 2013.
Share this story:
