Retail price milestone hit for lamb cutlets in Sydney

A lamb producer has hit a huge milestone with his chops selling for $12.50 per cutlet at a Sydney butcher shop. See how the humble cut earned its place.

The humble lamb chop is humble no more, with Hampshire Down cutlets priced at $99.90/kg at swanky Woollahra butcher shop Victor Churchill this week.

That’s about $12.50 a cutlet, thank you very much — and more than double what regular lamb cutlets are retailing for at supermarkets this week.

Lambpro stud breeder and premium branded lamb producer, Tom Bull from Kinross Station at Holbrook in southern NSW bred the Hampshire Down sheep to fetch the record price, which he said was a milestone for the industry.

The lamb chops had a price tag of $99.90/kg. Picture: Supplied

He said it was the first time lamb had “pushed through that price point”. Previously, the highest-priced Kinross lamb sold for was $79/kg retail.

Mr Bull said thanks to Kinross “every week, nailing the quality and marbling consistency” the lamb had earned its place alongside the top-shelf cuts – normally reserved for high-end beef.

“Lamb has never been able to command that premium, but we have got our product to the point where people will pay this money,” Mr Bull said.

He said the consistency of the product was thanks to the “control of our genetics and the feeding regimen”.

The six to seven month old lambs were raised on pasture then grain fed barley for 40 days.

While the lofty retail price was not the reality for all Lambpro clients, Mr Bull said this year 8 per cent of clients’ lambs would enter high-end branded supply chains.

“This is a stepping stone … we want to see that extra value, premiums at retail, passed down the supply chain,” he said.

Mr Bull, who will produce 1000 Hampshire Down lambs in the month of February, said about 30 per cent would be sold on the domestic market.

And while Mr Bull said he had copped some flak from others in the industry over the lofty price tag, his retort to the knockers was “‘it’s not going to appeal to everyone, but sales seem to show there is a market for high marbled lamb”.

With property prices skyrocketing, producers needed to look at building higher value supply chains, he said.

Value-adding lamb is the goal of Phoebe and Tom Bull, Kinross, Holbrook, NSW. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin.

“At the end of the day, if land is going to cost $10,000 an acre, we have to do all we can to value-add our products and squeeze all we can out of the product; how else are we going to pay off these farms,” he said.

Tom Bull on his farm at Holbrook in NSW. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin.