Suppliers report prices above €9/kg for lamb
Entries for the live sales at the marts are also continuing to tighten.
The tightening in supplies available for marketing has firmed the base under the factory prices this week, with the agents under more pressure to fill the requirements at the plants.
The later lambing of flocks is hitting supply as the remaining numbers of hoggets tighten, and any decent volume of spring lamb is still some weeks away.
With little change in the quoted prices at the factories, demand is delivering some benefit.
Suppliers are finding that it is easier to get over 900c/kg this week at the factories, and there is less pressure on the cut-off weights, with processors willing to concede some margin of increase to get sufficient supplies.
Entries for the live sales at the marts are also continuing to tighten, with small variations week on week as new-season lambs amount to no more than a trickle of the entries and reliance continues on the hoggets to supply the requirements.
There was a slight increase in entry on last week at Kilkenny Mart on Monday, where there were 310 head on offer.
Demand and prices remained steady, with reliance on the hoggets and new-season lambs yet to have any big impact on throughput due to the low numbers on offer.
Hogget prices continued to hold up well, with a leading price of €226 paid for a pen of five butcher's hoggets weighing 65kg.
A lot of 10 weighing 56kg made €222, while 13 weighing 57kg made €219. A lot of 13 weighing 57kg sold for €219, a pen of five weighing 63kg sold for €218, and 20 weighing 54kg sold for €210.
The factory-type hoggets sold for up to €149 over.
