Just over 460,000 lambs were imported into Ireland for processing last year, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Barry Cowen.
He provided the data in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy, who asked the Minister about the number of lambs that have been imported into the country for processing in 2015 to 2019 and the year-to-date.
The Minister extracted information from the TRACES database, which he explained, represents sheep of all ages imported into Ireland for all movement purposes. He explained that 2020 data is available for Quarter 1 only.
The following information was referenced:
- 2020 (YTD: 01/04/20): 108,853;
- 2019: 461,522;
- 2018: 521,798;
- 2017: 492,776;
- 2016: 432,354;
- 2015: 331,795.
