The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine uses the TRACES system to record sheep movements in terms of both imports and exports for the purposes of slaughter, breeding and fattening.
Traditionally, most live sheep imported into Ireland have come from the UK, including Northern Ireland. In 2021, a total of 367,936 sheep were imported.
The below table provides both the country of origin and the quantity of sheep imported each month in 2021.
Sheep Imports 2021
Month
|
Northern Ireland
|
France
|
Belgium
|
Holland
|
Total
|
January
|
35,034
|
|
|
|
|
February
|
26,160
|
|
|
|
|
March
|
22,469
|
|
|
|
|
April
|
19,053
|
|
|
|
|
May
|
20,394
|
|
|
|
|
June
|
18,919
|
|
|
41
|
|
July
|
37,816
|
|
99
|
|
|
August
|
38,842
|
11
|
|
|
|
September
|
40,947
|
15
|
|
83
|
|
October
|
30,462
|
|
68
|
|
|
November
|
42,995
|
|
|
|
|
December
|
34,494
|
24
|
|
10
|
|
Total
|
367,585
|
50
|
167
|
134
|
367,936
|
The below table provides the quantity of sheep imported each year from 2018 to date.
Sheep Imports 2018 - 2022 YTD
YEAR
|
Total
|
2018
|
521,798
|
2019
|
461,522
|
2020
|
426,984
|
2021
|
367,936
|
2022 (YTD to Feb 9th)
|
9,491
|
Currently, no tariffs apply between the EU and UK.