Finland Times

 

File Photo – Lehtikuva.

Supply of domestic mutton has increased in recent period with more than one million kilograms of mutton being sold last year, sources at the Finnish Sheep Association said.

 

It’s still possible to get a Finnish roasted lamb for the Easter table straight from the farm. Though some of the facilities are sold out or completely reserved, said the chairman of the association, Tapio Rintala.

 

“Slaughterhouses have been congested, so there is not always domestic lamb in the shops. The problem has been a little logistical,” Rintala said.

 

Mutton for Easter Sunday has never been more available. Mutton consumption has increased through the 2000s.

 

“It is probable that not everyone will get domestic Finnish lamb, even if the availability is more moderate,” estimated MTK sheep affairs specialist Jukka Markkanen.

 

Prices, according to Rintala, are estimated to remain consistent with last year’s Easter prices. Markkanen is a little surprised with news reports stating that prices have visibly dropped.

 

File Photo – Lehtikuva.

Rintala estimates that 20-25 per cent of the whole year’s mutton is sold at Easter. Sale for Christmas lamb is a close second. 

 

The summer barbecue season and lamb-and-cabbage time in the autumn are the other seasons. 

 

According to Rintala, the time for slaughtering has shifted back from the autumn to the spring. About a quarter of all mutton, or adult lamb meat, sold in Finland is domestic. Rintala says that domestic lamb sales will grow this year.

 

Of baby lamb meat, nearly 40 per cent of sales are domestic. Production of baby lamb meat is calculated from sheep under one year old. The number of sheep farms, after a decline, has stabilized at the current level, but growth in the size of the farms has increased production. The small farms have vanished, with larger farms taking their place.

 

“The sector is more professional, so the size of the farms is growing all the time,” Rintala said. 

 

Markkanen said production prices rose for a long time, but at the beginning of this year, those prices have fallen a little.

 

“Profitability has improved, but it’s still not good,” Rintala said. He raises sheep on the Rintala farm in the village of Yläne, in southwestern Finland.