WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD-TV) — American sheep producers are seeking a trade investigation over growing competition from imported lamb.
Brad Boner, past president of the American Sheep Industry Association, says imported lamb has taken a significant share of the U.S. market.
“At that point in time, we had 75 percent of the market share, and the Australian New Zealanders had 25 percent. Those numbers have flipped now and we’re totally opposite of that. We’ve lost that much market share in the last 25 years. What it comes down to is price. Investigations found out that in 93 percent of the instances, imported lamb was priced cheaper and many times significantly cheaper than a domestic product.”
The association has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate, with Boner warning that current conditions are unsustainable for American producers.
“We can’t continue to sell our product under our cost of production. That’s just the reality. Sometimes the Australians point to us saying we’re inefficient. We aren’t inefficient. We’ve just got an artificially low market considering the cost we have here in the U.S. They have a whole different world they operate in, in their country. I think it’s just important to know that the survivors actually, if we’ve lost 75% of our market share, the ones that survived are pretty darn efficient to have survived this long.”
The American Sheep Industry Association pursued a similar case in 1999. Industry leaders say a successful trade case could provide up to eight years of stability.
