In the year to June 30 Britain imported more than France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium combined.
However, together they were ahead in terms of value. Individually, the United States is also a bigger customer than the continental nations on their own.
Volumes of frozen meat going to China dwarf shipments to all other countries but it does not figure among the major buyers of the higher-value chilled sheep meat.
An emerging trend might be that in June it had the 10th highest volume though it was outside that list by value.
It was not in the top 10 on the annual or June quarter chilled export figures.
Britain’s year to June imports by volume, 20,445 tonnes, were down 10% on a year earlier and by value of $227.3 million, also down 10%.
This year’s figures will make fascinating reading when they are released about this time next year because Brexit is due on October 31, a crucial time for Christmas chilled British and European sales.
It might or might not go ahead and the outcome could be anywhere from smooth-sailing to calamitous. No-one knows.
For the year, the US, in second place, imported about 8000/t for a value of $155.4m, according to a Meat Industry Association report based on Statistics NZ trade data.
The European countries were next, with France at 5246/t, Germany 5139/t and the Netherlands 4423/t. Germany was the high-value market at $100.3m, followed by the Netherlands $74.5m and France $61.9m.
As the chart shows the US and Germany were the highest-value markets per tonne, the US at 13% of total volume and 18% of value and Germany 8% of volume and 11% of value. Switzerland was only 2% by volume but 4% by value. Britain’s 34% of volume dropped to 26% by value.
In the June quarter Britain took 3918/t for $44m of chilled sheep meat, a period marked by all top 10 customers importing less and paying less than at the corresponding time in 2018. It was followed in order by the US, Germany, Japan and Jordan though the latter was only eighth by value.
Britain had a 31% share by volume and only 23% by value. The US 14% and 18% and Germany 10% and 13% were again the highest per-tonne values.
In June the US was the biggest buyer, taking 489/t compared to Britain’s 477/t, both tallies being well down on a year earlier, the latter by 43%, though June is always one of the low-supply months. The US had 17% of the supply by volume and 20% by value with the UK at 16% and 12% and Germany at 10% by volume but 13% by value.
The data shows there has been in a mainly downward trend in chilled supply to Britain since 2014 though sales in April were higher than in the previous four years.
China took 80/t of chilled sheep meat in June, up by 161% on the corresponding time last year, whereas as all but Canada of the other major buyers had significantly lower volumes.
China took 51% of all NZ’s sheep meat exports for the June year at 203,865/t, ahead of the UK at 42,878/t, based on the dominance of the frozen market. China had a 36% share by value.
