Increased demand from home and continental markets, saw finished old season lamb prices take a massive leap forward at the early live auction centres this week, with marts recording a 20-30p per kg hike on the previous seven days.

At the end of the last week, values at the main sheep centres at United Auctions, Stirling; C and D Auction Marts’ Longtown market and Aberdeen and Northern Marts’ Thainstone Centre, had risen to 326p, 323p and 313p per live kg.

However, at the early markets of week, average prices soared 30p on week and £1.14p/kg on the year at Lawrie and Symington’s sale at Lanark on Monday which saw an overall average of 344p with the SQQ sitting at 348p.

Meanwhile, at Harrison and Hetherington’s St Boswells centre the same day, averages improved by 20p to level at 342.2p per kg while Craig Wilson’s market at Ayr, levelled at 340p – up 27p on the previous week.

Best of all was Borderway Mart at Carlisle, where hoggs levelled at a massive 358p per kg for all weights and types, which equated to £161.3 per head.

On Tuesday at Caledonian Marts’ sale at Stirling, averages levelled at 337p with an SQQ of 340p and at Castle Douglas, Wallets Marts saw old season lambs cash in at 333.53p with an SQQ 335.69. South of the Border at Hexham and Northern Marts’ weekly sale, trade reached a new high with averages of 343.1p, or £155.78 – up 120p per kg or £50 per head on the year.

Looking forward, Iain MacDonald, market intelligence manager at Quality Meat Scotland said domestic and export demand is set to remain firm through March and into April when Ramadan begins on March 10, culminating in the Eid al-Fitr festival a month later and Easter falls on the final weekend of March.

“On the supply side, it seems likely that numbers could tighten significantly as the spring progresses as there was a significantly smaller lamb crop in 2023, and auction and abattoir throughput, so far, is holding up well.

“Although export demand is set to hold firm as the EU ewe flock contracted further in 2023, export volumes could be limited if domestic production falls.”

Figures from Beef + Lamb New Zealand suggest that a significantly increased volume left for the UK during January 2024 compared to early 2023, pointing to increased imports in late-February and the first half of March. Meanwhile, Australia’s sheepmeat production and exports are expected to continue rising in 2024, with shipments to the UK aided by an increase in its TRQ for the UK in the second year of the FTA.

“This could partially offset some of the anticipated market tightening from domestic production,” concludes Iain.

Figures from AHDB show the UK produced 23,200 tonnes of sheep meat in January, a fall of 10% from December. Clean sheep slaughter totalled 984,000 head for January, a decline of 14% from December. There was an extra working day in January 2024 compared with January 2023, which may explain some of the annual increases recorded in monthly sheep production.

Exports of sheep meat in December grew to nearly 10,000 tonnes, with an annual change of +27% and a monthly increase of 20%. Imports of sheep meat totalled 3200 tonnes for December, a fall of 25% from November, but growth of 33% compared with 2022. We continue to monitor the levels of imports from Australia and New Zealand as the new quota years are in effect from January.