Kiwis Invited to Celebrate National Lamb Day
Kiwis Invited to Celebrate National Lamb Day
Sunday
February 15 is to be National Lamb Day, with this year
marking the 133rd anniversary of one of the most significant
milestones in New Zealand’s sheep meat industry.
On this day in 1882, William Davidson and Thomas Brydone achieved the remarkable, by launching the first shipment of frozen sheep meat from Port Chalmers in Otago on the Dunedin, bound for London.
The industry hope Kiwis here and around the world will recognise this incredible feat and celebrate it by enjoying lamb for dinner on February 15.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand CEO, Rod Slater says this day also gives New Zealanders an opportunity to recognise the hard work of our farmers and as a nation, a reason to be proud.
“So let us here in New Zealand celebrate with some delicious New Zealand lamb,” says Mr Slater.
“Not only are we celebrating the pioneers of the past 133 years, but also the direction our current agricultural industry is heading. We’re 100% behind all those in the industry.”
This first voyage was an important step in establishing our sheep and beef industry which now contributes $8.5 billion a year to the New Zealand economy.
The 5,000 sheep carcasses arrived in London
98 days later, in excellent condition (although not without
incident, with all the challenges of refrigeration in those
days) highlighting the size of the accomplishment. Prior to
this, New Zealand mainly sold wool overseas as no one
believed it possible to have a thriving meat export
business.
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