FROZEN PRODUCE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18891, 5 January 1927, Page 8

FROZEN PRODUCE.

MEAT AND BUTTER MARKETS. SPECIAL COLD STORES IN LONDON. JraOM OCR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, November 20. Those trades that depend Upon refrigerating for their maintenance, viz., the overseas meat and produce industries, share to the full tho uncertain and rather chaotic aspect which is cast over most business in Great Britain by the disorganising influence of the coal strike. Trade conditions are often paradoxical, for one branch of business will be, perhaps, prosperous, while a neighbouring section will be experiencing the worst of slumps. Bather more than a month ago, the frozen meat trade was buoyant to a remarkable degree, only to fade away as autumn Home meat turned the scale against an impoverished demand. Even row the old season's remainder of New Zealand meat looks like being cleared, so that when we have got Christmas'behind us, a clean slate may keep the upward tendency that should come with brisker general trade.

New Zealand Lamb. At the moment, New Zealand lamb •ales are, naturally, hindered to some extent by the fresher Australian new season's meat to hand. The competition of the spring lambs from the lUvei Plate is also felt, especially at this time, when people fly to cheaper neat. In the circumstances, 9Jd, which. is top price for Canterbury 2's, must be considered a fair price. The fresh Australians are id to §d cheaper, and the Plate article id to a Id lower.

Dairy Produce. In the butter trade, no better position can be recorded. Buying is all round of a hand to mouth character, and only the-knowledge that the next arrival of control butter is not until the sth of next month seems to warrant the.holding to the present fixed minimum price, which is Isos per.cwt for finest, and .148s for first grade. Consumption is down and stocks are. up, and the immediate future does not seem reassuring. The following is a list of current quotations:—New Zealand, finest old season's, 138s to 142s per cwt; hew season's, 148s to 150s; good to fine, 130s to 1365; Australian, finest, 138s to 1465; uhsalted, 154s to 160s; good to fine, 130s to 1365; unsalted, 128s to 140s; inferior, 116s to 128s; unsalted, 120s to 1265; Canadian, creamery, . 136s to 140s; Irish, creamery, 140s to 1465: unsalted, 150s to 158s.

\ Booth African Pork in London. I New Zealand has nothing to learn from South Africa in the matter of pork production, but the arrival on the London market recently of a number of frozen pig consignments is indicative of the strong attraction to this market just now. The South African Meat Export Company, of Johanneshas been the sender, but the opinion of the meat on the London market, whence the shipments were sent, was adverse to the meat, which weighed 16 stone and upward. Cutting of the hind loins had also apparently prejudiced the article. The smaller carcases made up to 7d. and the larger ones up to 5d per lb. South Africa has much ground yet to cover Doth in breeding and dressing before ■he can profitably exploit this meat The Late Sir Henry Jones. j Few men have played a bigger part In the development of refrigerating industry as between Australia and Britain _ than Sir Henry Jones, whose demise at a comparatively early age was recently announced. His death lias come just when the frnit industry of the Commonwealth, of which he was the outstanding figure, was in the midst of a discussion as to whether it would adopt national control for export purposes. Sir Henry started life in ft Hobart jam factory at nine years of age. ■ He' rose to be its proprietor, and was chairman of the Henry Jones Co-operative, Ltd., a huge concern with a capital of one and a half million sterling, since its establishment in 1010. That company controls no fewer than thirteen jam-making and canning factories in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Sir Henry was director of each of its component companies, and managing director of H. Jones and Co., Ltd., Hobart.

i NZ. Cold Stores In London. The announcement that the London manager of the New Zealand Meat Producers' Board, Mr B. S. Forsyth, in his present visit from Britain to the Dominion has carried with him plans for a projected cold store on the Biver Thames has aroused a considerable amount of interest in refrigerating and -. , frozen produce circles in England. Such A fact has hardly been wanting to . levell that the Board.has a lively inter-./-♦■t in this subject, but it would ap- / pear to bring the matter to a stage at which procedure with such a scheme . wan imminent. Observers have borne V in mind the words attributed to Mr \ David Jones, the chairman of the Board, \ to the effect that they were waiting to the progress of butter control before, taking any step. Whether or not

. *'absolute control" in New Zealand [ gutter marketing succeeds on the prev - tent year's and its fate this ■~ season seems about as gloomy as it could well be, it is not thought that the Heat Board's decision as to building ' tionddn cold stores, wonld be much dependent on this. Butter control failure,; as'much as success, might, indeed, hurry the consummation of cold stores as a protective step for the two trades. Neither does the debated lack or super* Unity of public" cold store accommodation in Britain affect the Now Zealand imposition to a great extent, as the purpose of the Dominion warehouse would obviously be to focus and centre New Zealand supplies rather than merely to secure the surety of space at any given time. The Imperial Conference has recommended that public declaration of eold storage stocks in Great Britain shall be made compulsory. This is a ' factor to be borne in mind.' It was made, a strong point a year or so ago that there was a considerable excess fiver the amount of public cold storage available. For the past six months or •o, the stocks, of meat and butter have been very unevenly placed in this coun;fcry, owing to the northern markets at times being extremely depressed on account of the Labour troubles. Cold ■tores generally estimate their possibilities a* to the level of charges on the

basis of the store being half fall all the "year round.. In the case of a Dominic Jon store on the riverside in London, this ft state of affairs would presumably be w greatly improved upon, as with the yariB otu dames of food coming forward from New Zealand, there is. no reason why the store should not be kept reafull alj the year.