Consumers will have to pay up to €40 for a joint of Irish spring lamb this Easter because of a shortage of animals to supply the market.
Farmers were being offered up to €5.18 per kg (185p per lb) at factories and by butchers earlier this week for lambs, which are scarce.
Mr Laurence Fallon, chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association's national sheep committee, explained that many farmers had moved to lambing their ewes later in the year, creating a shortfall.
He said the price was also being strengthened by a strong demand for Irish lamb in the French market, which takes 80 per cent of production.
An Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, which has been running a lamb promotion campaign, said the average prices paid at export plants to farmers were up 50c per kg on this time last year.
"Increased lamb supplies during the first two months of this year as a result of hoggets carried over from 2002, coupled with an increasingly competitive French market, put pressure on average lamb prices," said its Market Monitor weekly report.
"However, since the beginning of March average prices are in fact running some 6 per cent higher than corresponding year-earlier levels at €3.74 per kg, reflecting the steady domestic market," it said.
"Supplies of spring lambs have been increasing each week, but so far this year there is no sign of an oversupply situation, which occurred during previous years," it added. Mr Fallon said lamb supplies for 2003 would remain very tight through the season.