UK sheep sector could be ‘sacrificial lamb’ for deal

The UK’S sheep sector stands in danger of being made a sacrificial lamb in post-brexit trade deals with countries such as Australia and New Zealand, it was claimed this week.

The National Sheep Association (NSA) said that while it was encouraged that moves towards negotiating post-brexit trade agreements were getting under way, it feared that proposals being floated for a deal with Australia would have devastating consequences for UK sheep producers.

“A free trade deal with Australia or New Zealand may be beneficial for some UK industries but could have a catastrophic effect on UK sheep farmers and we cannot sit back and be sacrificed for the benefit of others,” said NSA chief executive Phil Stocker.

He said that Australia, a global sheepmeat exporter, was keen to send greater supplies to both the EU and the UK, undercutting British lamb in both markets.

According to Stocker, Australia currently had a quota to export just under 20,000 tonnes of sheep meat to the EU. However, with an annual production of more than 700,000 tonnes, the country was likely to seize upon Brexit as an opportunity to renegotiate its EU quota

0 UK producers fear flood of Australian sheep meat – and to substantially increase access to the UK market under a new unilateral deal. He said: “NSA understands Australia has been pushing to increase its EU quota for many years now, so there is no doubt it would send larger amounts of sheep meat to Europe and the UK given the opportunity.”

The UK sheep sector was already suffering, claimed Stocker, from unacceptably high levels of imports of New Zealand lamb.

“We would be keen to see an outcome of Brexit being tighter controls on New Zealand lamb being allowed into this country, and we certainly need to avoid making the situation worse by allowing Australian product to head our way too,” he said.

Although the majority of Australian exports went to the Middle East, USA and China, Stocker said that if a new deal allowed more supplies to be diverted to the UK and Europe it could have a huge impact on both the UK’S home and traditional export markets to the continent:

“The UK is currently an importer and exporter of lamb, which helps balance supply and demand through the year and exploits ideal sheep producing conditions in the UK. However, NSA believes more should be done to grow the UK domestic market and increase selfsufficiency in lamb production and consumption – especially as we do not know what access we will have to EU markets in the future.”

He said that currently around 36 per cent of UK lamb was exported, with France and the rest of the EU taking the majority of this, adding that negotiating a trade deal with the EU post-brexit which would maintain or increase this volume would be crucial for the sector.