Lamb prices rose in the EU and at home

The volume of sheep and goat meat and live animals sold on the international market (87 thousand tonnes) increased by 5.8 percent compared to January-November 2024. The largest target markets were Algeria (28.3 percent share), Jordan (16.4 percent) and the United Kingdom (11.4 percent). The volume shipped to Jordan increased by 4 percent, more than double that to Algeria, while that shipped to the United Kingdom decreased by 29.4 percent. In the European Union, the price of light lamb, expressed in euros, increased by 7.3 percent to 911 euros/100 kilograms, and that of heavy lamb by 8.7 percent to 916 euros/100 kilograms of slaughter weight in 2025 compared to the previous year. In Hungary’s largest export market, Italy, the price of light lamb increased by 15.6 percent during the period under review.

According to KSH data, Hungary’s sheep population was 831.7 thousand on 1 December 2025, down 1.8 percent compared to December 2024

The number of ewes decreased by 3.6 percent to 649.5 thousand in the same comparison. According to AKI slaughter statistics, sheep slaughter expressed in live weight decreased by 6.2 percent to 1.6 thousand tons in 2025 compared to a year earlier. According to the Central Statistical Office (KSH), the volume of Hungary’s live lamb exports increased by 2 percent (to 13.7 thousand tons) and the value by 5.8 percent (to 28.1 billion forints) in 2025 compared to the previous year. Italy, which accounts for 51 percent of exports, received 8.5 percent more lamb. According to AKI PÁIR data, the price of light and heavy lamb in Hungary increased in the 1st–11th week of 2026 compared to a year earlier, the former being 2,436 forints/kilogram (+5 percent), the latter being 2,254 forints/kilogram (+1.5 percent).

AKI PÁIR