Lamb sales expect a boost ahead of Australia Day

MLA domestic marketing manager Graeme Yardy said over the last few years January typically saw lamb sales up by 12 to 20 per cent compared to other times of the year.

"This period is a big one, in a business that's in the billions, that's quite a contribution to the year's sales," he said.

"We used to do a one-week campaign but the cost of doing these campaigns has gone up over the years, but we see the opportunity to own the season, rather than one week," he said.

"This is a big time for lamb and we're expecting one of the biggest seasons ever with prices more affordable than they have been for the last few years."

Mr Yardy said the summer lamb season was now comparable to the spring lamb sales period.

"Originally the campaign for summer was really put in place to make sure we had good back-up volumes coming through the supply chain post the big spring flush... but it's become it's own strong sales period in its own right," he said.

"This last spring has been so big because there's been so much supply around, the lowering of prices has seen a lot of consumers really come back into lamb that were probably eating it a less frequently.

"We've definitely seen over this last six months volumes up over 20pc, so there are plenty of people enjoying lamb at the moment."

Lamb is included in the latest round of pre- Australia Day specials from Coles, with the retail giant dropping lamb loin chops to $16 per kg, their lowest price in four years, while cutlets are down to 429 per kg.

Mr Yardy said MLA had already received some great feedback on the 2024 lamb ad and had been working with retailers to help the buzz translate to sales.

"This is one way we've evolved from just this big campaign that we hope everyone sees and people go and buy lamb... we've been focusing a lot more in the last few years on not just grocery stores but on making sure butcher stores are well stocked and ready for the ad, and working with the service industry."

Owner of Toowoomba butchery The Meat Cellar Luke Jensen said even though many people plan to choose lamb for Australia Day, sales tend to come in a last-minute rush.

"We probably haven't seen preorders for the last two or three years but that's also the trend for Christmas as well, everything is now last-minute grab it and go type stuff," he said.

"It's now a hell of a lot harder to order and know what people are actually chasing... do they want chops, whole shoulders, legs or something else.

"That's the beauty with us, we buy the whole carcase so we can probably manage it a lot better."

Mr Jensen said last year lamb sausages and shoulders were among the most popular offerings.

"We had a really good post-Christmas trade because people got smokers for Christmas," he said.

"We had people trying out their smokers over that Christmas and New Year week and tried everything out then come Australia Day they went, 'yep let's smoke a lamb shoulder or a leg of lamb'."