MEAT VALUES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18239, 25 November 1924, Page 8

MEAT VALUES.

HIGH PRICES IN LONDON. A HINT FOR THE FUTURE. No little amount of interest is being created throughout the Dominion at the present time in the position of the frozen meat market at Home. The proposal of the British Government to establish a Commission to enquire into the question of the inflated cost of the commodity to tho public of Great Britain is calling forth a great deal of comment in the Dominion, and the opinion of one ;of Canterbury's leading exporters of frozen meat is of more than passing interest.

In the course of an interview with a representative of "The Press" yesterday, the exporter stated that the present high prices of New Zealand frozen mutton and lamb in London were due to the fact that the Homo market was bare. "The published returns show," ho said, "that the shipments of New Zealand lamb for October wore only 45,000, and this number just about cleared the last of the season's killings. It is therefore a question of demand which is causing the high prices at present being quoted for spot deliveries. It is common knowledge since the war that a new section of the British public has taken to eating NewZealand lamb and mutton and has found it very good. This new demand has been responsible for tho satisfactory prices which have prevailed during the last few years. In talking about tho present high prices in London and tho difference between tho c.i.f.e. price and the retail price, it should bq borne in mind that tho c.i.f.e. price is for the whole carcase, whereas tho retail cost is generally quoted for best cuts. The English consumer will buy a leg of lamb, a leg of mutton; a shoulder of lamb, or a shoulder of mutton separately. Of course these joints fetch a much higher price than the inferior breast and neck. Before the war, when New Zealand lamb was sold retail at from 7d to 8d a pound in London, you could buy breast and neck at 2£d- Therefore, to compare wholesale and retail prices, one must take the average obtained for the cut carcase. New Zealand 3amb is quoted to-day, spot on tho London market, at from to a pound. In I-lawkc's Bay, which is the earliest part of New Zealand to kill lambs, exporters are giving lljd a pound for lambs on their feet. These lambs, however, will not be ready for the London market untU January, when prices may ,bc easier, a fact which might be anticipated by the realisation that 5,000,000 lambs of heavier weight than usual will be marketed in Great Britain from New Zealand alone during the following few months. From the competition which is at present taking place among exporters in New Zealand, it looks as if they were not only giving full price rates, but were going to the very limit of today's London values, and were gambling on these prices being maintained, -which appeared to be ridiculous. It is a marvel how the British public can continue to buy New Zealand meat at more than 100 per cent, above pre-war rates, especially when the cost to-day of all food commodities is about 60 per cent, above pre-war rates. Wise sellers of lambs at these phenomenal prices will put away the extra they are now receiving against the inevitable day when our meat must come into relationship with other foodstuffs, although that will not be so bad if we can get 60 per cent, above pre-war values—the figure at this rate working out somewhere at about lOd a pound c.i.f.e.