FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16165, 20 March 1918, Page 8

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

MEAT DISTRIBUTION CRISIS. A SERIOUS POSITION. (from our special correspondent.) LONDON, January 8. By the time these lines are in print —which it is hoped they will reach, despite intervening perils—something more of the grave disturbance of the great industry of meat marketing in the United Kingdom will have_ become known. However, the following remarks on the situation as we meet it in mid-winter may be "useful as indicating the extraordinary situation in which the frozen meat trade finds itself. THE ASTOUNDING SHORTAGE. When, three months ago, the rcrophets were forecasting meat shortage' for the late winter and early spring, l doubt if even the most pessimisticjcould have conjured up half thq gloom which now fills the picture in this department of the country's food supplies. "Wei knew that the Allied armies were consuming even more and more meat, and that freight was becoming more and more difficult to our own ports, also that inland transport was gradually decreasing in efficiency as the industry became more completely subversive of the rest of the nation's trade. All this notwithstanding, the contrast between the spectacle of October last and to-day, three months' lapse, is appalling. STARVED MARKETS. All the big markets are literally starved for meat, and there are now such sights as queues of butchers; —not consumers —thousands deep standing at Smithfteld. I am going to give in the following paragraphs a reasoned statement of what a prominent member of

the frozen meat trade, says as to the underlying facts in this situation, but first of all I would preface two brief remarks on the root causes. The present Food Controller, Lord Rhondda, no less than his predecessor. Lord Devonport, has 1 apparently failed to keep open the avenues of meat production in this country. The fires of home meat marketing are damped down, because the farmer h«*s not been tackled in the right way. Secondly, just at a critical moment there has been a colossal switch-over from one system of frozen meat marketing to another—the first, efficient and well organised over a space of thirty years, and the second, new, untested, and unsound. The effect on the whole system of frozen meat marketing in this country, if it is persisted in, is almost too serious to contemplate, and opposition is likely to be determined • both from _ colftnial and foreign sections of the industry.

THE GOVERNMENT AND DISTRIBUTION. Mr Gilbert Anderson has made the following remarks on the present action of the Government: —"Colonial meat is controlled by the Board of Trade, and the meat not required by military authorities is released to the agents nominated by the shippers in the colony, on the strict understanding that it has to bo distributed through the usual channels in an equitable manner to meet the requirements of the trade throughout the country. The pricc at which this meat was to be sold was fixed by the Boafd of Trade to the distributor. In addition to the supplies through the regular channels a special committee considered the applications from all over the country of any retailer who was short of requirements of frozen meat for his trade. The distribution of the meat under the above conditions met with the full approval of the trade. "Just before Christmas the Food Controller released a large quantity of lambs. In the meantime, a scheme of control had been set up, and a socalled Association was sought to be established, and to get this done it was agreed that the meat should be forced through these channels for division in equal amounts to the actual members —that is, not according to the requirements of the trade but in proportion to the holdings of the salesmen in the Association. A further regulation of the Food Controller was that the 'Wade could not sell to their own customers, but had to sell only to those who came with a registered ticket. "The regulation which has been imposed by the Food Controller is to pool the whole of the quantities to firms who may or may not be interested in frozen meat, and who certainly will not buy New Zealand frozen meat when home or foreign supplies are available. + '!? identity of the New Zealand ''Fade will be entirely lost, and firms v v ~ established a regular trade * T ,? ea -' all d lambs will bo forced r l ' so business. This is possible ponfroi! t^le fact that it is to be centrally controlled with an absolute

disregard of the requirements of any individual, the controlling body receiving 2£ per cent, without any cost whatever for distribution. "It is, therefore, of vital importance that tho New Zealand shipper insists that the contract entered' into with the Imperial Government, 'that meat not required for military purposes should be distributed through tho usual channels,' be adhered to. The South American shippers entered into a contract with the stipulation that 20 per cent, of the whole shipments were to be free for sale through the usual channels, and insist that this cannot be departed from. The South American firms are mostly foreign. All tho agents handling frozen meat have expressed their willingness to work in with the requirements of the Food Controller as long as New Zealand interests were protected."