What is the price of lamb from a farm and in the store and will there be enough Bulgarian lambs for St George’s Day demand?

In just a few days, the Easter holidays are coming, which this year coincide with St. George’s Day. During this period, all Bulgarians try to put lamb meat on our table if possible. Therefore, the question of the availability of lamb in stores and its price is very relevant at the moment. Most purchases are made in stores, but the number of people who buy directly and from animal farms is also growing.

As of now on purchases from the farms the prices “wholesale” is BGN 8-9/kg live weight, and “retail” (1-2 lambs) is BGN 10-12/kg live weight, he told Money.bg Simeon Kapaĸolev, the predecessor of the National Sheep and Goat Breeding Association, which is the largest non-profit organization in the field of livestock breeding in the country. Live weight lamb prices were similar last year for Easter and St. George’s Day.

This means that the prices in stores in the country should be close to last year’s. Observations show that in the store network, the average price of 1 kg of lamb is about BGN 26-27.

The predictions of the branch organization are that on the Bulgarian market this year for the holidays, a total of about 500,000 Bulgarian lambs will be sold. “In view of the coincidence of the two major holidays, we expect that the Bulgarian lambs will be sufficient to satisfy the demand on the local market”, pointed out Simeon Kapaĸolev.

On the Bulgarian market, in addition to domestic production, lamb imports from North Macedonia, Romania and Australia are offered for Easter and St. George’s Day. The prices of imported lamb are about 10-20% lower than those of Bulgarian, but it should be taken into account that Australian lamb is deep frozen, warn our sheep farmers.

The fact that the imported lamb from the mentioned two neighboring countries is to one degree or another with different taste qualities than what we are used to in our country, due to the different feed with which the animals are fed there, is not to be ignored.

The prices of lamb from North Macedonia are slightly lower than ours, mainly due to a special agreement with the EU for duty-free imports, while the Macedonian side is not obliged to comply with the relevant EU requirements.

In our stores lamb meat from Bulgaria has a blue stamp, and imported – with a red one, reminded by the branch organization.

As for other important food products – goat and especially sheep yogurt – in recent years, incl. lately, it has been observed increased interest in buying directly from farms of dairy products as well as meat. “This shortening of the supply chain gives farmers an additional incentive for production, and guaranteed access to quality food for consumers! The tendency is for these direct sales to develop seriously,” Kapaĸolev is emphatic.

Lending is one of the most essential incentives and prerequisites for agricultural development, especially animal husbandry. And “associating farmers in cooperatives is of great importance, as cooperatives should become the “pillars” of agriculture, as they are in the West, and in our country,” said the co-chairman of the National Sheep and Goat Breeding Association. It is precisely the cooperatives that should be helped by the state, incl. and by granting loans from the state Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), believes Cimeon Kapaĸolev.

In this regard, he commented that “after a year-long effort by the branch organization, the BDB began to preferentially lend to producer groups and organizations. There is still a lot to work in this direction, but the important thing is that this is the beginning! The BDB showed pragmatism in the creation of such a product, and already several groups of manufacturers are taking advantage of it!”