Agricultural newspaper Bændablaðið reports that stocks of mutton in Iceland have reached a historic low.
Never before has a slaughter season started with so little preserved mutton as this year, according to recently released statistics.
Stocks at the end of July were 767 tons and monthly sales were around 500 tons. The decline in mutton production this year is due to several factors, including higher costs and fewer slaughters this year.
These forces have combined to bring mutton inventories to an all-time low, but officials won’t get the full picture until mid-September, when slaughterhouses will provide status reports on stock levels.
Ágúst Torfi Hauksson, CEO of Kjarnafæði Norðlenska, warns that numbers should be seen in context. He said to his Bændablaðið: Icelanders are accustomed to the price of this product, so a significant price increase could lead to a decline in demand. should be kept to If farmers’ salaries are so low that they are forced out of farming, it can also lead to a shortage of lamb meat. “
According to Ágúst, the market is actually doing well at the moment, with mutton prices reflecting the balance between supply and demand.
As with many other industries, production costs rose sharply last year. Coupled with inflation, it is natural that prices will rise significantly. The question is whether consumers will accept this and whether demand will adjust accordingly.
The article that rising production costs lead to historically low mutton stocks first appeared in the Iceland Review.
