http://www.news.com.au/money/for-a-k...tory-e6frfmci-
1225815165289


"Nearly half of Australia's lamb is exported. The biggest market is the US
(24.5 per cent), "




$100 for a kilo of lamb by 2016

* From: The Daily Telegraph
* January 01, 2010 4:15AM


IT'S almost enough to turn a meat-lover vegetarian - a single kilogram of
lamb cutlets could cost $100 by the middle of the decade.

Australian Bureau of Statistics official consumer price index (CPI) data
shows lamb has doubled in price since 2000. By comparison, beef rose 52
per cent and seafood by 51 per cent. Chicken only set buyers back an extra
15 per cent. Food prices in general increased 43 per cent.

The Daily Telegraph found Sydney butchers charging up to $59/kg for
cutlets yesterday.

If prices continue to rise at the rate of the past decade, those lamb
cutlets would hit $100/kg by Christmas 2016 - and reach nearly $120/kg in
10 years.

Even if your butcher charges less than $59/kg, it still means two cutlets
cost what four did at the start of 2000 - and what one might cost in 2020.

Australians spend $2.2 billion a year on lamb, according to Meat and
Livestock Australia (MLA).

We eat 11kg each, among the highest levels in the world. Price increases
are being driven by growing international demand and falling supply.

On December 15, lamb prices at Forbes - one of the largest livestock
trading centres in NSW - reached the highest in recent memory. Head
stockman Geoff Chandler of Kevin Miller, Whitty, Lennon and Co in Forbes,
yesterday said prices would increase in the lead-up to winter. Recent
flooding would moderate supply but demand from exporters was unlikely to
slacken.

Mr Chandler, involved in livestock trade for 50 years, said lamb prices
would continue to rise.

"The demand for lamb and other sheep meat in other parts of the world is
increasing while supply is decreasing. That can only do one thing," he
said.

Lamb exports for the year through October were up 16 per cent compared
with the five-year average, MLA said.

Nearly half of Australia's lamb is exported. The biggest market is the US
(24.5 per cent), followed by North Asia (20.9 per cent) and the Middle
East (19.5 per cent).

AgForce Sheep & Wool said the Australian flock was now at the same level
as it was at Federation, with the ABS quoting numbers as low as 71 million
sheep down from about 119 million in 2000.

Australia is the world's second-largest exporter of lamb after New
Zealand. The area operated by farms with lambs and sheep is about 134
million hectares, or 17 per cent of Australia's land mass.

--
Peter Lucas
Brisbane
Australia


If we are not meant to eat animals,
why are they made of meat?