This week, Meat & Wool New Zealand chief Scott Champion is touring Europe on a marketing mission. He’s currently in the UK, New Zealand’s number one sheep meat market.

Craig Finch, marketing manager for Meat & Wool NZ,  says the crucial visit follows on the heels of last year’s global sheep meat forum in Brussels which highlighted the challenge facing sheep farmers around the world about how they can increase both the demand and consumption of sheep meat.

Market research carried out by Meat & Wool New Zealand shows that in the past eight years, sheep flocks in the European Union decreased 12 per cent to 78 million.