Iceland Lamb On London Market

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30569, 12 October 1964, Page 8

Iceland Lamb On London Market

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, Oct. 9. Lamb with a different flavour, nearly 2000 tons of it, will be in butchers* shops in Britain during the next eight weeks, says the “Daily Mail.” It is coming from Iceland and is the cream of this season’s crop of 900,000 lambs. But housewives who buy it will find it difficult to place repeat orders because the supply is strictly limited. Britain is Iceland’s best customer, but domestic consumption of the lean, succulent meat, bred from the descendants of sheep taken

there by the Vikings nearly 1100 years ago, has risen so much that only about 150,000 carcases, 16 per cent of the crop, can be sent to Britain. “We believe that the distinctive quality of our iamb is derived from its breeding and ‘ from its very quick-growing ■ season on the high, verdant ■ pastures which grow in our ■ short summer,” said Mr Erl- ; endur Einarsson, managing ! director of the Federation of Iceland Co-operative societies. Retaining More “The lambs are born in late May or early June and _ slaughtering begins in September. Because of the very good season and for hay and other crops, our fanners are retaining more lambs for breeding this year with the aim of increasing output next year.” ! At Smithfield Market the i earcases, weighing only about i 301 b, should sell wholesale at i about 2s 3d a lb—2d below ; comparable New Zealand • lambs. i “We have no difficulty in i selling all the lambs which i Iceland sends,” said a spokesman of the wholesaling firm.