EXPORT LAMB PRODUCTION

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29082, 19 December 1959, Page 20

EXPORT LAMB PRODUCTION

Drop In Figures ForfTwo Months

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 18. New Zealand export lamb production in the first two months of the season, from October 1 to December 2, shows a sharp reduction from the level of 12 months ago, says the Market Information Service of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board. New Zealand’s export lamb total for the two months is 864,550 carcases. This compares with 1,200,644 in 1958—a decline of 336,094, or 28 per cent. The weight of lamb produced was 12,409 tons, compared with 16,471 tons produced in the same months of 1958. The bulletin says that this decline will be reflected in the weight of supplies going on to the United Kingdom market in the first quarter of 1960. i At the same time there is a sharp reduction in the quantity of export lamb produced in the first four months of the Australian season, which began in July. Australian export lamb production showed a decline of 9000 tons, or 44 per cent., in the four months. U.K. Kill Down

The kill of mutton and lamb in the United Kingdom is likely to be considerably less than had been expected. The market is likely to feel the consequences of heavy slaughter of United Kingdom stock during the dry summer of 1959.

Production figures in the United Kingdom from January to the end of October show that 68 per cent, of the increased supply coming on to the market was from home farms.

Slaughterings of mutton and lamb in the United Kingdom in the three months August, September and October, showed an increase of 75 per cent, over the figure for the same three months a year earlier. All of these factors suggest that supply in the first quarter of the year in the United Kingdom may be considerably less than originally expected.