NEW lamb cuts have been developed in an effort to address consumer resistance from the high prices of heavier cuts.
We need to investigate different ways for lamb to maintain market share.
- DAVID HOPKINS
The delicious findings from research conducted by the Australian Sheep Industry Co-operative Research Centre (Sheep CRC) - in collaboration with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and NSW Department of Primary Industries - which aimed to adapt lamb cuts to the current consumer, will be released at LambEx 2016, Albury, NSW.
NSW Department of Primary Industries senior principal research scientist David Hopkins said the genesis of the project was to develop a strategy to deal with the increasing weight of the average Australian lamb.
“The consequence of heavier carcases and heavier primal cuts is buyer resistance because the costs of these products, and weight of these products, are too big,” Dr Hopkins said.
“The idea was to find new cuts that might be used out of heavy carcase and to provide back-up information of the value of these cuts.”
He said lamb needed a strong presence on the domestic market, and new ways of presenting lamb from heavier carcases were required. One of the new cuts derived from the research was from the forequarter, and will weigh an estimated 700 grams average.
“The objective is to have something you don’t have to fork out too much money from your pocket,” he said.
“Since we started this program two years-ago, the has been massive expansion of value-added lambs cuts.”
The domestic market remains the backbone of the Australian lamb industry, with fresh lamb retail value increased eight per cent year-on-year, and volume up 4pc last year. Lamb accounted for 12pc of total meat volume purchased over this period.
“Protein is a competitive market and lamb is competing against other protein sources,” Dr Hopkins said.
“We need to investigate different ways for lamb to maintain market share and this is one such approach.”
This topic will be explored in a hands on demonstration at LambEx with Dr Hopkins , MLA corporate butcher Doug Piper and MLA corporate chef Sam Burke.
The research, along with existing sheep meat cuts, has been collated in the Nutritive Value and Eating Quality of Australian Lamb Cuts book.