Meat Board boosts mutton sale in U.K.

Press, 16 May 1985, Page 31

Meat Board boosts mutton sale in U.K.

By

HUGH BARLOW

NZPA London

A new marketing strategy combined with New Zealand’s unique capability to produce boneless mutton with a guaranteed fat content has boosted sales in Britain by a quarter so far this year. The Meat Board reported sales of 9900 tonnes for the first seven months of its financial year beginning last September, a 24.6 per cent rise over the same period 12 months ago. This represents a good start to a season in which

the board hopes to increase its market share by around 10 per cent. Mutton has been traditional!}’ viewed as a poor relation to lamb. The Meat Board is keen to emphasise the role the product can play in the British market, although it says that because of the difference in value lamb will always have priority. The biggest buyer of mutton is the manufacturing sector, which uses a variety of cheaper boneless meats for products such as pies

and instant meals and accounts for around 60 to 65 per cent of sales. Of the remainder, about 15 per cent is sold as carcases and the rest as either bone-in or boneless cuts — sold mainly to the catering industry. The board’s European mutton marketing co-ordi-nator, Mr Dean Clark, said three factors lay behind the growth in sales — marketing strategy, product quality and consistency of both quality and supply. Last April the board decided to market mutton on the same basis as lamb,

taking it off the spot market and, instead, selling to appointed agents at a fixed price. The most immediate benefit had been to inject stability into the market, Mr Clark said, with buyers preferring to sign long-term contracts knowing the price would stay relatively constant rather than take their chances on the open market.

The chemical analysis process, used only in New Zealand, which allows processors to label their mutton as having a specific lean meat-to-fat ratio, had also

proved attractive to manufacturing buyers, Mr Clark said.

Mutton sales in the United Kingdom last year

totalled 14,755 tonnes, compared with 123,331 tonnes of lamb. Mutton sales in all EEC countries, including the United Kingdom, were up 40 per cent at 19,139 tonnes while lamb sales were down 20 per cent at 155,457 tonnes.