The latest Bord Bia sheep price dashboard for the week of 26 April 2025 shows Irish farmgate lamb and hogget prices averaging at €8.63/kg, or €9.06/kg when VAT is included. The price is 80c/kg below the record-high prices of spring 2024.

The sheep dashboard also shows an increasing price differential between Irish and British prices. At an average of €8.05/kg, the British price is running 58c/kg lower than the average Irish price.

This contrasts majorly to the corresponding period in 2024 where British prices were running 49c/kg ahead of the Irish price.

The Agriculture Horticulture Development Board cites a combination of higher numbers of heavy hoggets and higher volumes of lower-cost sheepmeat from New Zealand and Australia as creating significant marketing challenges.

The challenging market conditions mean that British sheep producers are receiving almost €1.90/kg less for their sheep than in 2024. The differential between British and Northern Ireland prices is also running at just 23c/kg.

Meanwhile, French lamb producers, as can be seen in Table 1, are receiving an average price of €10.93/kg.

This is €1.30/kg ahead of the corresponding period in 2024. Spanish prices, at an average price of €8.88/kg, are over 75c/kg ahead of in 2024.

Prices in the southern hemisphere are running significantly ahead of in 2024 but remain at 50% to 60% of farmgate prices in Europe. This is improving the competitiveness of southern hemisphere product in UK and European markets.

Current picture

Supply and demand remains finely balanced with no change in this week’s quotes. Most plants continue to offer an opening price of €8.70/kg to €8.80/kg for quality-assured (QA) hoggets. Regular sellers and finishers handling large numbers continue to have success negotiating returns of €8.90/kg to €9/kg.

Demand remains concentrated on hoggets with lambs accounting for about 5% of throughput. Lamb quotes are in the region of €9.20/kg for QA lambs with groups and regular sellers being paid €9.30/kg. There are only isolated reports of higher prices. Carcase weight payment limits remain at 20.5kg to 21kg.