Sheep farmers have been paid €5 per kilo by export plants for the first Irish spring lamb and are hoping that they will receive more for their product in the coming week.
Many sheep farmers have opted out of early lamb production because of the costs and instability involved, leaving a scarcity of product in the spring, especially this year with such an early Easter.
Production is now almost exclusively centred in the south-east of the country where specialist farmers were saying this week that they will need even more money from the factories to ensure the future of the trade.
However, the reform of the CAP has had a dramatic impact on sheep farming, with an estimated 1,500 farmers applying to the Department of Agriculture and Food to become involved.
This follows years of decline in the sector which saw the number of sheep farmers drop from 49,000 in 1989 to 36,000 this year. In recent years there has also been a steady decline in the number of breeding ewes, which had fallen from a high of over four million in 2000 to an estimated 3.6 million last year. Mr Laurence Fallon, chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association's national sheep committee, said sheep farming in Ireland appeared to have "turned the corner".
He said sheep numbers had been driven by EU subsidy since 1985 but now, with the ending of the system and the introduction of the Single Payment, farmers have been able to consider keeping sheep again because having them will not upset the stocking levels and debar them from subsidies.
"While all is not rosy in the industry, it is fair to say that they are the most profitable of farm animals to keep at present," he said.
"There is virtually no surplus of sheepmeat worldwide and there would appear to be a growing demand for it," he said.
He confirmed that an estimated 1,500 farmers had applied for new entrant registers and tags for their sheep, indicating a growing confidence in the sector which is worth up to €300 million annually.
"I would like to see the Irish national flock grow to four million again because that is the critical mass needed by the industry to keep it going at the levels where we have been operating," he said.