“The negotiations, which have been dragging on for seven years, really needed to deliver a significant boost to Australia’s miserable quota access into the highly restrictive EU market,” president Chris Groves says.

“The outdated and unfair EU quota system means that Australia’s limited access only provides EU consumers with the equivalent of one-third of a lamb cutlet each year.

“The sad irony is that, as local EU production and consumption of lamb and sheepmeat continues to fall, EU consumers remain locked out of experiencing high quality and competitively priced Aussie lamb.

"The fear is that lamb may drop right off the menu for European meat eaters, which would be a disaster.

“It must be remembered that the Australian sheepmeat industry did not gain one kilogram of additional access into the EU from the Uruguay Round of WTO negotiations in 1995.”

Mr Groves says that just when progress seemed possible, the trade talks appear to have collapsed over the stubbornness of some developing countries to move forward on potential safeguard arrangements.

“It’s understood that developing countries were demanding stricter triggers, which would ultimately have led to higher levels of protection," he says.

"Ironically, developing countries will also be the biggest long-term losers from the failure to reach agreement.

"If the round has completely failed, then the Australian sheepmeat industry will not stop at investigating other means of improving Australia’s access into the EU market.

“It’s a massive, missed opportunity to deliver real market access improvements for farmers across the world, and it comes at a time of a global food crisis.

"This alone should have spurred on trade ministers, particularly from developing countries, to find common ground."