NEW Zealand lamb and mutton is flowing into Australia.
High prices for local sheepmeat, a critical lamb shortage and a low Kiwi dollar have forced local butchers to look over the Tasman.
- Have Your Say in the form below
A Melbourne butcher, who did not wish to be named, said he could buy Kiwi mutton backstraps for $18.50 a kilogram compared to $21/kg for the local product.
He also said New Zealand lamb racks at $12/kg were also better value than $14-$15/kg for the local product.
"The problem was not only the price of local mutton but it was also hard to get," he said..
Along with Australia, New Zealand was suffering from a dwindling flock and tight mutton supplies, but unlike Australia which exports 45 per cent of mutton, New Zealand exports 80 per cent of its mutton and lamb.
But until recently little Kiwi lamb has ended up in Australia.
New Zealand's flock has fallen to 32.4 million while the mutton slaughter this year would be 3.7 million head, compared to Australia's 10.5 million head.
Its biggest markets are the UK and Europe followed by the US and the Middle East.
But details of how much New Zealand sheepmeat is flowing into Australia are sketchy.
Meat and Wool New Zealand executive director Rob Davison said the emergence of Australia as a market for New Zealand product would be due to the recent sharp changes in currency exchanges rates.
"The New Zealand dollar was now very strong against the Euro but weak against the Australian dollar which makes it very lucrative to redirect product to Australia," Mr Davison said.
In recent years Australia has sold processing mutton to New Zealand, while sheepmeat imports had been much smaller at about 50 tonnes a year.
Mr Davison said in the six months to the end of March New Zealand exported 208 tonnes to Australia, although he suspected that trade might have grown in recent months because of the currency movements.
Mr Davison said the New Zealand dollar was now 20 per cent below the Australian dollar, whereas in recent years it was about 10 per cent under.
Another advantage for the New Zealand product was that although its surplus ewe prices were trading at a high of NZ$50-55, this price was still only half the equivalent prices for Australian ewes.
