New season lamb prices are on the up with average prices around 50p per live kg ahead of this time last year at several auction centres over the past week.

On Monday, the average price in Scotland for 1610 lambs was 250p kg, which was almost 5p per kg up on the week despite a 51% increase in numbers cashed, while the trade for 688 old season lambs slipped 1.6p for a 58% reduction, to level at 183p.

It was a similar situation south of the Border where the overall average for 21,677 lambs increased by just over 8p per kg to 247.2p – even with a 48% increase in numbers, while the hogg trade for 2664, fell 4.1p to 176.6p with numbers down just 2.4% on the previous seven days.

Tuesday's trade appeared to be even better too, with Caledonian Marts' Stirling centre witnessing the dearest lambs to date.

"The sheep trade is very rosy – our new season lamb average was 256.1p which is 15p per live kg up on the week and almost 60p per kg up on the year," said Alastair Logan, sheep auctioneer at Caledonian Marts.

"We had 37.7kg Suffolks making £95 per head and 37.2kg Texels making £94, so farmers should sell their lambs now before the trade drops. Everyone appears to be looking for lamb just now," Mr Logan said adding that there appears to be a real shortage of 39-42kg lambs in the country, as the majority of producers south of the Border have already sold theirs.

He pointed to the reduced number of both old season and new season finished lambs on the market at present as one of the main reasons for the rise in value, which, coupled with the fall in the value of sterling is resulting in a increased demand for British lamb on the continent.

It was a point echoed by Archie Hamilton, auctioneer at the UK's largest sheep market at C and D Auction Marts' Longtown centre.

"The fat sheep trade is through the roof just now. Hogg numbers are just not there and there are not the new season lamb numbers to fill the gap, so demand is outstripping supply," said Mr Hamilton who added that big heavy hoggs are the dearest they have been this season, with 60kg sheep now making £125-£130 per head, while regular 38-40kg new season lambs are making £98.

Backing up these statements, he said that last week, the firm sold 700 new season lambs to average 250p per kg, whereas at the same sale in 2016, more than 1000 lambs were cashed at 205p.

Similarly, the 2500 hogg numbers cashed at last week's sale levelled at £2 per kg, against 160p for 3500 at the same sale last year.

The ewe trade in contrast, is much on a par with last year.

According to AHDB, UK lamb has become much more competitive with Irish lamb due to the fall in the value of sterling, which given the fact around 40% of Irish lamb is consigned to the French market and another quarter is exported to the UK, makes a huge difference to price received by Scottish producers.

While there was some fluctuation, in 2016 the UK lamb reference price averaged €33/100kg dw higher than the equivalent Irish price. However, for the period to 21 May 2017, the average difference had reduced considerably, to just €7/100kg. Since March, the UK price premium has been less than €10/100kg for all but two weeks, with the Irish price actually exceeding the UK value for much of March and first half of May.

To date, UK prices have shown a greater year-on-year reduction (13%) to that of Irish prices (9%) in euro terms this year, due mostly to currency movements.

Compared to the first five months of 2016, the pound has lost around 10% of its value this year to date. This has led the 4% year-on-year fall in sterling UK lamb prices this year to be emphasised in euro terms. This also means that the average Irish price for the year to date has actually been stable in sterling terms, compared to 2016.

Trade data is currently only available to March this year and there are already some initial signs that increased competitiveness may have aided UK sheep meat exports. UK shipments were 3% higher year-on-year during quarter one, with increased shipments to all its main markets with the exception of France. This was helped by the fact that the average export price in euros was down 11%.

However, the visible impact so far has not been straightforward. The French market has been difficult this year, with import demand slowing and import prices lower. Nonetheless, French customs data for Q1 suggests that Irish lamb actually increased its share of the market, whereas a decline in shipments meant this was not the case for the UK.

French market commentary has, however, picked up on the increased competitiveness of UK product. As such, more recent months might show some support to UK export volumes.