Tens of thousands of producers left the sheep business after Congress eliminated the National Wool Act Incentive program. Because so many producers went out of business, millions of ewes were exported or slaughtered. This decrease in production created a void in supply forcing meat companies to turn to imported lamb product. Up to that point, meat merchandisers were reluctant to sell frozen imported lamb from New Zealand and Australia however, they faced a dilemma of importing or not carrying lamb at all. This made it harder for the remaining American lamb producers to market their lamb to distributors