There are fears sheep farmers are being short-changed, receiving around $4 for every kilo of lamb they produce while supermarkets are fetching up to $60 on the shelves in comparison.
Cowra sheep farmer Chris Groves told Today most farmers are getting about half of what they were last year for their lambs and sheep and mutton are worth a lot less than that.
“We as farmers want to make sure the Australian people can keep eating sheep meat,” he said.
“Ours is not a product we can take and put on the shelf and sell to Woolworths or Coles, we have to have abattoirs, the meat has to be prepared and it is quite a supply chain.”
He said there are a number of factors contributing to this, including supply and demand economics and the impending threat of Western Australia banning export trade.
“That’s pushing a lot of sheep east already because there’s a big uncertainty over there as to what the future might be,” Chris said.
“If we don’t fill that market, some other country will and it is very hard to understand why the government is insisting on this course of action,” he said.
“I just hope they realise the ramifications and damage that will do to our sheep market on this side of the country.”
(9 NEWS)
