America’s sheep producers are losing ground in their own market, even as Americans consume more lamb. That’s the central problem we asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to confront in our posthearing brief on lamb imports.
We’re asking the Commission to recognize the injury to our domestic industry, include sheep growers and feeders in its analysis, and find that increased imports are a substantial cause of that injury.
Australia tells a different story. Its government argued that drought and other longstanding problems reduced American production, and imports simply filled the resulting supply gap. Representatives of Australia’s lamb industry also argued that imports help sustain demand and keep the domestic market supplied.
Our response begins with what is actually happening in the marketplace.
From 2021 through 2025, the Commission’s data show U.S. lamb consumption grew more than 17 percent. Yet domestic sales of American lamb fell more than 10 percent. Our producers lost sales volume and market share while their lamb market was expanding.
And we presented evidence that imports replaced American lamb that was available to sell.
Superior Farms testified that a major retail customer switched to cheaper imports even though Superior could meet that customer’s needs. Another processor explained that import prices limited what he could bid to ranchers.
Our witness, sheep producer Michael Bardsley, described established buyers who stopped buying or could no longer make a bid. His operation sold only half its lamb crop in the fall of 2022, receiving less than half the previous year’s price per pound on those sales.
Those experiences show how a lost meat sale reaches all the way back to the ranch.
The Commission’s pricing evidence reinforces that testimony. Imports undersold domestic lamb in 144 of 154 quarterly product-price comparisons. That is a pattern of lower prices, backed by accounts of customers switching to imported supplies.
We also challenged the argument from Australia’s industry representatives that growers and feeders should be excluded. Their attorney said the investigation should cover processors alone.
We argued that the law recognizes competition between products at different stages of processing. A live market lamb becomes lamb meat. When imported meat replaces meat from an American lamb, the rancher can lose a buyer or receive a lower bid. We asked the Commission to include the people raising those animals when it evaluates the damage.
