Easter lamb price vs. price of lambs for export. Choosing the sheep – difficult!

The price of lambs going for export increased as the demand also “boomed”. Sheep breeders are in a dilemma: to slaughter the animals for the local market, for the Easter lambs, or to keep it and give it to the Arab countries, without too much trouble?

During this period, Romanian sheep breeders are in a big dilemma: should they slaughter the lambs for Easter or export them? Just before the Easter holidays, the demand for animals increased for the Arab countries, and the marketing of the young to middlemen has greater advantages: the security of the sale and the lack of hassles (no DSVSA permits are needed, and often the lambs are picked up directly from the farm) .

Farmers are not worried about Easter sales as long as there is strong export demand. Animals leave for Arab countries for 23 lei per kilogram.

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The farms that export, go and load the lambs live, directly from the fold

Tens of thousands of lambs from Galati, Gorj and Vrancea counties will arrive in Arab countries this year. The farmers say that the news has spread that the Romanians have good goods, so the trucks come and load the lambs live, directly from the barn. The price offered live is 22.5 – 23 lei per kilogram.

The Patrichi family owns a farm with over 2,000 sheep in Frumușita, located approximately 30 kilometers from the city of Galați. This year the ewes calved earlier and the lambs given for export were around 25-30kg, the optimum weight for delivery. 800 lambs were sold live, to Arab countries, at the price of 22.5-23 lei per kilogram.

“The shot came and I charged them. We sold 800 lambs for export to Arab countries. The lambs weighed an average of 30 kilograms. We are satisfied because we sell the goods, we don’t stay with them. Unfortunately, we do not have a place on the domestic market. We kept another 200 lambs for the gilt, 100 of which we will sell at our place. A one-kilogram carcass of lamb costs 35-45 lei per kilogram,” said Ștefan Patrichi for Adevărul. He stated that Arabs pay better and appreciate lamb meat. “If the Arab countries didn’t come to buy our lambs, we would have gone bankrupt. Romanians are not taught to eat lamb”, added the farmer.

On the other hand, Ioan Corneliu, a sheep breeder from the Tismana area, Gorj county and founding member of the TIS Animal Agricultural Cooperative said that the association he represents will deliver approximately 10,000 heads to Arab countries. The most important deliveries will be made in the summer, when it is Ramadan. “The demand for Arab countries is much higher compared to the past years”, stated the sheep breeder from Tismana. He said requests have also come in to deliver lambs to Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

The agricultural cooperative from Tismana is working on the construction of a farm with approximately 10,000 heads from European funds: “We are working with the farm. We have made the purchase of machinery and now the construction of the farm follows. The investment is in growing and fattening and we are also going to do processing. The investment is over two million euros. There will be 2,000-3,000 heads per cycle, and there will be 3-4 cycles per year, reaching approximately 10,000 heads per year”, added Ioan Corneliu.

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The price of Easter lambs on the local market

The lambs started to be sold for the Easter holidays, the sale price being currently between 40 and 50 lei carcass and 23-25 ​​lei live. “Mies are bigger, because Easter is later compared to other years. The price is 23 lei per kilogram live, and slaughtered is 40 lei”, said Ioan Corneliu, a sheep breeder from the Tismana area, Gorj county, and a founding member of the TIS Animal Agricultural Cooperative.

Another breeder, Ion Ţuţu from Vrancea county, said that he sells lambs for 50 lei/kilogram carcass. “We sold 400 lambs this year. They came with the shots directly to the farm, loaded them. They all go for export to Arab countries. The price was 23 lei per live kilogram. The lambs that remained on the farm will be slaughtered and sold in the market for 50 lei per kilogram,” said farmer Ion Țuțu.