FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16410, 2 January 1919, Page 4

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

THE PEACE-ERA CALL EOR .MEAT. THE AMERICAN MEAT TREST. (mail oLi: si'EM.vi. cor.respondent.) I.ON DON. November 12. There* have been ?ojno kaleidoscopic changes in the pe:ior:*l meat situation as ;iflecting tiir ISriu.-ii population during the last week or two. Since tlir* onward march of the victorious Alii«*ti assumed a jiood' pace there has been a now factor creeping into tho food situation, and that i-> the ljwssity to provide something hioro each week towards t!io provisionnieni (•! ike freed territories and peoples in H:iuf!e;> and ebowiiero. Pe;ice, or at least, the cess.ition of hostilities. came yi*>rei day. and to-day tho Press announce that iho A Hie-, are to food Germany. This, of course, means a still broader distributive system for tho whole of the world's meat supplies, and every ounce of meat during the next twelve months will be wanted for the disengaged fleets to carry over oceans now lice lroin submarines. PEA C E I) I'.; V E LOW lEN TS. It is onlv a week or two since v.c were right in the midst of a ru»h to get on with meat ireezing for homeslau r, htored stock - in Great Britain. Ihe cold stores at, Cardiff. Birmingham, "Manchester, and Glasgow were just getting under way with this when Government programmes seemed to alter, and an early halt has been called for this proceeding. As a matter of fact, quite a number of cargoes of frozen meat 'have suddenly arrived at English ports, which seemed to be quite unexpected bv everyone, and this modifies j policy somewhat to the extent <jf stop-i pin"' this meat freezing proposition, j which at the host was an extremely uneconomical proposal irom ncaiL e\oij | point of view. | TO FEED EUROPE. j Doubtless, before these liuos are in print many ships, otherwise held from their legitimate, function, will he carryin." tho long-(lchiyc<l loads ot AustralasTan meat to Europe. which sadlv needs them. How far there is a world meat shortage is is hard to gauge; but. at anv rate the opportunity lies straight ahead during tho next twelve months I of more economically distributing over the populations most in need, the available supplies from all the sources of the Southern Hemisphere. Undoubtedly. the growing supplies from tie countries of the Southern Cross will be more, efficiently used. Australia's return <o fuller stocks will be welcome, and New Zealand's contribution, as full as ever, will bo a great help. Turning to South America, wo have countries of risin" production like Brazil, whence as between 191G and 1917 the meat exports were doubled. Irom 33,000 to 66,000 tons. The total calculation of Brazil's head of stock is 29 millions. This State is only ouo of those that must contribute in the future, and for all there is a big time ahead. RECONSTRUCTION IN THE MEAT TRADE. After four long, dragging years of war, peace has come with startling suddenness, and with it we f' ll ® ouiselves plunged into a maze ol problems, that may, most of them be brought under the one head ol iteconstruction." The oversea mea trade, built up again, will probably be a structure rather different irom that of pre-war days. Granting that urgent. European needs for meat may extend well over 1019, it may be) eighteen months or two years beioio j the Ministry of Food ceases to let the sources of production gain notmal touch with marketers and distributors over here. AVill those ranks of middlemen ever be tho samo as befoic. Few expect that the speculator will be out and abroad in the meat market j as of old; the c.i.f. buyer will no* loom as large as he did; and probably we shall find that the principle of nominated commission agency business. representing the producer direct in the market of will be given a vogue it has not received of late years. . BRITISH OR FOREIGN? Another question which is coiercising many linnds is what- proportion of the industry will be bona fide liritisii trade in the future. This is a matter which largely depends upon Government action, and it is believed that the Imperial Conferences of several months back have already decided the main character of the jjart the Imperial Government will taKe in protecting this issue. An authority in commenting on this situation and its hearing on the American Beef Trust problem said the other day that conditions in this "country and in the colonies are ripe for study by a committee not quite so simple as that which sat some years ago and reported in a nebulous fashion ou the Trust question. He added that the present time, when the ordinary market conditions are. not operating, would be well filled in by determining what are to be the future relations of Smithfield with its main sources of supply. Prom'ding to speak of the. British Dominions and the American beef firms, the same authority said that the alarm of the sfnekraisers in Now Zealand is understandable if they have heard of 'what has happened to their fellows in tho United States. "It is our opinion,"' says the. American Federal Trade Commission, "that the failure ol American meat production to keep pace with population is in large measure due to the conditions treated and maintained in the markets by the Big Five. Their conspiracies anil unfair .practices -have disheartened producers of livestock by destroying their confidence in the fairness of the marketing system to such an extent that large numbers have abandoned or curtailed their operations. Thousands of the more intelligent producers today regard tho stockyard markets as gambling places in which the packer owners not onlv take an exorbitant percentage, but rig and control the game itself." That, of course, is a condition which is likelv to become general, wherever Trust" control becomes paramount, and it is this fear and apprehension which sire doubtless the causae of thr* New Zealand Commission. which reported on the Trust question.