Seamus McMenamin, sheep meat sector manager with Bord Bia joins Ciaran Lynch on this week’s episode of OviCast with a focus on the sheep market and an outlook for 2021.

Seamus reviews some of the key highlights from the sheep meat trade during 2020 as well as overall throughput and imports from Northern Ireland.

He discusses the growth seen in key markets and moves on to discuss the impact of global trade patterns on the competitiveness of Irish lamb.

Seamus then outlines the influence of China on the world stage particularly in relation to New Zealand lamb exports before discussing the effects of Brexit on UK supply into the EU market and their production levels as well as the impact it has on trade and transport and their outlook for the UK production.

Seamus also highlights the potential for growth in the Middle East, Asian and US markets as well as the welcome increase in domestic retail and he outlines the importance customers place on Quality Assurance certification delivering to market specification before finishing up discussing the outlook for the sheep meat trade in 2021.

For more episodes from OviCast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast/