Arctic lamb meat - competitive advantage in a national and an international market

Norwegian lambs graze the natural pastures of Norwegian mountains and forests and produce meat of very high quality. We have however, little information on how the quality of these natural pastures affect the meat quality, and whether lambs grazing coasta l or mountainous areas will have a 'taste of sea' or a 'taste of mountain'. The main objective of this project is to achieve knowledge on how northern and alpine growing conditions influence lamb meat quality, and how such a quality can be used when marke ting the product nationally and internationally. The project is expected to identify how northern and alpine climates influence forage quality of pasture plants and whether this influences lamb meat quality. Meat quality of lambs grazing in contrasting ar eas; coastal-subarctic, humid-mild and dry-mountainous will be compared. The effect of finishing the lambs on different infield pastures on meat quality as opposed to slaughtering directly from the mountain pasture will also be addressed. We will study th e quality of selected pasture species at various locations under field conditions. Under controlled conditions we will investigate effects of temperature and day length on forage quality and other biochemical compounds important in determining meat qualit y such as fatty acids. Both sensory characteristics and other quality aspects like food traditions and region of origin will be studied with regards to consumer acceptance in a national and an international market. The possibility of promoting Norwegian lamb meat (fenalår) in Italy will be explored and different competition strategies evaluated. The results of the project are expected to improve the possibilities of exporting Norwegian lamb meat. The achieved knowledge can serve as a base for export of other agricultural products.