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Abstract
The Hungarian sheep sector has become a one-market sector, almost the whole
amount of slaughter lamb went to Italy. It would worth to exploit possibilities in other European
markets. Such markets can be the Spanish and Greek for ”light” and the French, German and
English markets for ”heavy” lambs. The European lamb prices are characterized by large
seasonal fluctuation and the degree and timing of changes are different. Due to these seasonal
changes, the producers often suffer great losses. Study of the literature on lamb sales called for
an analysis of price forecasting. In my study, I performed a forecasting of lamb prices in
Hungary, Italy and Greek for the period between 1996 and 2007 based on the data of the
European Committee. Among the forecasting methods, Seasonal Decomposition and SARIMA
models are the most precise, producers can achieve a better market position by using these in the
practice.