McDonald's NZ drops lamb burger

McDonald's reduced the size and price of its initial lamb burger in January in response to customer demand and took lamb off the permanent menu last month, spokeswoman Kim Bartlett says in a statement.

Federated Farmers is saddened by the move but understands the commercial reality after local sales "tailed off", meat and fibre spokeswoman Jeanette Maxwell says. Rival companies Burger Fuel and Burger Wisconsin feature lamb on permanent menus and Subway had also used the product.

Burger Fuel is expanding in the Middle East, where lamb is a favoured meat protein, and the farmer lobby group hopes McDonald's, which bought 210 tonnes of lamb last year, may export the meat to its units around the world in the future, Ms Maxwell says.