MARKET BRIEFS
MARKET BRIEFS
• HILL Farm Sheep, the liveweight lamb marketing outlet set up following the closure of Bury St Edmunds livestock market two years ago, has doubled its throughput of lambs from its first year of operation. In 2000 it traded over 50,000 lambs compared with just over 23,000 in 1999.
• CATTLE supplies in the Republic of Ireland are down on the year by 14%, according to Bord Bia, The Irish Food Board. Up to 25 Jan, 27,000 cattle over 30 months have been tested for BSE and sold to the purchase for destruction scheme. Exports from the Republic to Continental Europe are said to be 80% lower than normal.
• MAFF has confirmed that its provisional June census figures for sheep were wrong. New figures now suggest the carryover of lambs into the first quarter of this year, will be down by 40,000 head, says the MLC. There has also been a bigger decline in the breeding flock than previously expected with it set to drop to 19.3m in December, 3% down.
• PORK exports to EU countries fell by nearly 10% in December last year, compared with a year before, says MLC. Over the year, exports totalled 99,000t of product, representing an annual decline of nearly 30%. Provisional import statistics for the first 10 months of 2000 show a rise in pork imports of 41,000t, compared with 1999. *