Irish sheep farmers are expecting very high prices for new-season lamb this year on foot of a major increase in lamb prices in the last few weeks.
The new lamb season has not yet formally started, but some factories have paid 520 cent/kg for lambs which have become available and farmers are hoping to surpass last year's high of 560 cent/kg.
The optimism is being based on an improved market for lamb since the beginning of the year, despite poor prices for lamb towards the end of last year.
In the past two weeks, prices have risen to 434 cent/kg for grade one animals. This compares with the 330/350 cent/kg that farmers were receiving last autumn
According to the Irish Food Board's weekly bulletin, the increase in price was not driven by demand from France but by home demand from Irish butchers and the breeding trade. It said prices achieved in France for Irish lamb matched the increases in purchase prices at home.
In France, it said, imported lamb opened around 370 cent/kg in January and last week imported lamb prices were in the range of 330340 cent/kg for grade one lamb.
Bord Bia also reported that export sheep slaughterings had increased by 3,500 head, or 1 per cent, so far this year.
All of the increase, it said, had come from hogget (mature lamb) slaughterings, which were up 6,600 head.
"Spring lamb supplies are scarce and reports suggest that numbers finishing this year will be down and they are also likely to be later than other years as producers found it difficult to match their return with that of lamb finishing in May/June, " said the Market Monitor report.
Last week, 37,466 sheep were slaughtered at Irish export plants, compared to 35,857 in the corresponding week last year.