Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 July 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Joe Burke:

It is a combination of frozen and chilled. We can come back to the committee with figures on the exact split. The proportion that has come in in frozen form has actually increased since the latter end of last year. That is mainly as a result of difficulties in other international markets for the southern hemisphere exporters. In recent years, they would have been exporting higher volumes to China and, to a lesser extent, to the US market. Partly because of Covid and other competitive pressures, those markets weakened, which led to them diverting more frozen lamb into the European and UK markets. More of it has come in frozen.