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EU Sheep meat production drops back during 2020
Thursday, 25 March 2021
By Charlie Reeve
Total sheep meat production in the EU-27 dropped back during 2020. 421,000 tonnes of sheep meat were produced by EU-27 countries, a decrease of 4% (-16,000 tonnes) on 2019 levels.
This is a larger decrease in production across the EU than the 1.5% previously estimated by the European Commission based on the EU short term outlook. Factors leading to these increased declines, were the reduced demand in the food service sector, and less retail demand around key events such as Easter and Ramadan due to the ongoing pandemic.
Spain, the largest producer inside the EU-27, had a year-on-year reduction of 6% (-7,000 tonnes). Despite this decrease, Spain still accounted for 27% of all sheep meat production within the EU-27 in 2020.
Germany was the only major sheep meat producing nation in the EU-27 to buck the trend significantly, where production rose to 26,000 tonnes, an increase of 8% (2,000 tonnes) year-on-year.
Production in France dropped back, as have import volumes due to less demand in the foodservice sector. France remains the second largest producer of sheep meat within the EU-27 with 80,000 tonnes produced in 2020.
Tighter supply of sheep meat in the EU is one of the factors helping to support prices in the UK, as well as lower imports from New Zealand. However, looking at European farmgate prices, GB prices have now overtaken French prices based on p/kg deadweight. This means UK lamb is becoming less price competitive in the European export market, and could temper demand for UK product.
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