The Castricum Brothers export plant at Dandenong will be closed for an expected three months in response to the tough market climate, with a combination of currency and current values making it hard to compete in the export market.

The traditional seasonal closure generally occurs for a month through late June–July, when numbers are harder to source.

In a prepared statement Castricum Brothers general manager Gary Castricum has cited the 50 per cent rise in the Australian dollar value against the US dollar and other major trading currencies as a major factor in the temporary closure.

He said the steep rise in the Australian dollar’s value has forced exporters to pursue large price increases for lamb products overseas which made lamb very expensive when compared to other meats.

The move, he said, has encountered significant market resistance which has made it very difficult for lamb exporters to remain competitive against local buyers, when more than half of the nation’s lamb production was consumed locally and is unaffected by currency fluctuations.

Mr Castricum said the spike in livestock prices in recent weeks to above $5 per kg had produced a level of costs that were unsustainable for exporters.

Lamb was hovering at around $5.50/kg last week.

Mr Castricum’s views regarding viability were reinforced by other export processors this week who said that if prices were not returned to an average below $4.50/kg, other exporters were likely follow the Castricum move to opt out of the market until conditions improved.

Adding to stockagents and farmers concerns Adelaide-based T & R Pastoral this week announced it would buy 100 per cent share in the smallstock processing business of Armidale, NSW -based Country Fresh Australasia. The T & R-CFA deal involves the sold of two abattoirs, two overseas meat sales offices in America and China and a domestic distribution store in Coff Harbour.

It was lift T & R processing capacity to 30,000 stockstock units a day at four plants in SA, NSW and Qld.

In November T& R purchased a half-interest share of Foodcom International, a global import and distribution company operating primarily in the USA. The company is based in California.