00:00It's one of Australia's most popular Sunday roasts, but the price of lamb is on the up.
00:09And it might soon be hard to justify putting on the dinner table during a cost of living
00:13crisis.
00:14The sale yard pricing of lamb nationally over the last year has gone up by about 32%.
00:18Retail pricing, the trend does follow the sale yard, it sometimes can be lagged and
00:22over the last year the retail price on average of lamb across the country has gone up 12%.
00:26And the reason it's so expensive is the drought.
00:29With fewer lambs at the sale yards, prices have reached record levels, setting a challenge
00:33to supermarkets trying to keep prices down.
00:36Legs of lamb at the moment are retailing at around $15.99 a kilo, but that leg is costing
00:42us close to $14, so that is very, very light margin on meat.
00:47For local butchers like Justin Cashman, it's a losing battle.
00:51He can't compete with the supermarkets, which can offset the increased price of lamb over
00:55other parts of their massive supply chain.
00:57We don't want a massive margin, but we obviously need a margin to sustain business, but when
01:02they have 5,000 different lines that aren't related to meat, they can afford to sell it
01:07below cost.
01:08The price hikes for popular cuts of lamb has led to a 30% reduction in sales at the butcher,
01:13with people switching to cheaper cuts of meat like chicken and pork.
01:16It's expensive, and chicken is a lot cheaper, and we can buy good quality free range chicken
01:21for a really good class, and so we opt for that now.
01:24A wet summer has been forecast, but even if the drought breaks, the price of lamb is expected
01:29to remain high for some time.
01:30We're going to keep paying more and more for lamb into the next few years just because
01:34of that tight supply and very strong offshore demand.
01:35Offshore demand.
01:36Offshore demand.
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