- Location
- N.Lincs
Has anybody ever sat down and wondered how the supermarkets arrived at the magic R3L 18kg spec?Agree with your theory of producing a product what they want for the public to consume, and one they demand? But are you rewarded for it? Time and time again we hear r3l 18 kilo is what they want, well do you get a premium? 85/90 % of mine will be e/ u 2,3l, 3h, would leave me a premium of 20 quid a lamb by providing not exactly what they want.
The cynic in me says it was not driven by what the consumer has asked them for (as @Lovegoodstock says the consumer really only has what supermarkets give them). I would argue it came from looking on the world market to see what was easily obtainable and what they could easily source to import and hold our end price down.
R3L's are available by the boatload from the other side of the world - E3L's, I suspect, are a little less plentiful....
We're not in sheep in a big enough way to compete against boatloads of R3L's (in what is, effectively, a race to the bottom - if we do 'em at £70, NZ will do 'em at £60 etc), that's why we aim to produce a heavier better shaped product to sell at a premium in a live market (and get paid for the full weight - market scales permitting but that's a whole different thread)