In W20 in the lamb and mutton landscape, Western Australian live sheep exports to Saudi Arabia by sea could resume after September 2023, if supply chain standards, protocols, and federal government approvals are finalized. Australian live sheep have not been exported to Saudi Arabia since August 2012 due to the country’s concern that the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System would impinge on its sovereignty. In 2009, Saudi Arabia was Australia’s third largest Middle Eastern market for live sheep, importing over 576K heads valued at USD 36.54M. Nearly 1.2M Australian sheep a year were exported at the trade’s peak. In New Zealand, red meat exports continued to reflect the difficult global economic conditions, with exports in March totaling USD 1.1B, down 4% YoY. Specifically, New Zealand’s sheep meat exports in March 2023 totaled 46.68K MT, valued at USD 448M, up 16% YoY in volume but down 8% YoY in value. In Q1 2023, New Zealand’s total meat exports were valued at USD 2.8B, down 11% compared to Q1 2022, while sheep meat value amounted to USD 1.1B, down 15% over the same period. According to MIA experts, tough economic conditions in some of New Zealand’s major markets impacted the value of meat exports, particularly when compared to March 2022, when export volumes were relatively low and values relatively high.
AHDB reports that, in the UK, sales of lamb roasting joints in the two weeks leading up to Easter 2023 rose by 25.5% in volume compared to the same period in 2022. Specifically, leg roasting joints accounted for almost 93% of all lamb roasting joints sold in Easter 2023 and 62% of all lamb sold during the period. The largest uplift in lamb purchases was seen in the middle family demographic, rather than older consumers, where there was a 22.3% increase during the peak Easter purchasing period compared with 2022. AHDB attributes this increase solely to the performance of lamb. In Spain, the Government of Castilla-La Mancha has set out the conditions that must be met by authorized slaughterhouses in order to receive sheep and goats from establishments within the protection and surveillance zone caused by the outbreaks of sheep and goat pox. Ranges have been increased from 3 and 10 kilometers in the protection and surveillance zones to 5 and 20 km, respectively. Subsequently, the restrictions have come to encompass entire municipalities. The Resolution states that the Bautista Benavent SL and Campo de Criptana City Council slaughterhouses may slaughter animals from the protection zone only (municipalities of Alcázar de San Juan and Campo de Criptana) in their facilities.
The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency carried out increased checks in April 2023 and detected more than 30MT of frozen lamb from North Macedonia that was falsely labeled as Bulgarian. The lamb meat was found at a slaughterhouse located near the town of Kardzhali. According to the Bulgarian Breeders' Association, more than 200MT of lamb from North Macedonia entered the country at less than USD 7.58/kg, around 30% less than domestic production in Bulgaria. In the next few days, Morocco is expected to start importing sheep from Spain, Portugal, and Romania, with the aim of covering domestic red meat shortages and creating a balance in national markets, on the occasion of Eid al-Adha. Lastly, the Moroccan National Association of Red Meat Merchants expects the first shipment of Romanian sheep amounting to 15K heads to arrive in the Tangier Med port in two weeks' time, before Eid al-Adha. The Moroccan government had taken a number of measures, most notably the abolition of customs duties and the value-added tax to encourage the import of sheep, after this measure was initially limited to cows destined for slaughter.
