THE MEAT EXPORT TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1123, 10 May 1911, Page 8

THE MEAT EXPORT TRADE.

. OVER-SUPPLIES IN LONDON, 'Tho frozen meat marker is by no means satisfactory, and signs are not absent of the advent of another such season as was MOD," writes tho London correspondent of the "Sydney Morning Herald." "The trouble is simply 0110 of over-supplies, which have led to such heavy stocks as to cause congestion in tho meat market all round.. Some six weeks ago tho forward buyers of New Zealand lambs, who usually at that time of the year operate heavily for March to May shipments, were found to.be reluctant to do business. Since ■ then this tendency has increased, and practically nothing is doing on a c.i.f. basis. These men got to hear of very heavy expected shipments of lamb from Neiv Zealand, and became alarmed. I hear of close 011 000,000 lambs likely to .be shipped from New Zealand in May—a ship just in is discharging 158,000 North Island lambs cannot be sold at present are being bottled up, and there is still a considerable quantity of Australian lamb, of quite secondary quality, in cold store. The present position of slackness is rendered more acute by tho exceedingly wintry nature of the weather; with blizzards and snow about, good fat beef is more to the point than , a dish of lamb.

"Accompanying these depressing conditions, and resulting from them, we find a low level of prices for both mutton and lamb. New Zealand, Australia!), and South American mutton is a goad'3d. per lb. under the level of 1910 at this time, and Commonwealth lamb is worth 3Jd. to 'id., against 4Jd. to sd. last year. The position of the lamb trade is certainly most disappointing and somewhat dis-. quieting, but considering the enormous import; (1,720,000 for . the first three months of the year, afe against 1,391,496 in 1910) nothing else could have been anticipated. Selling conditions aro a bitdull at the moment, bnt there is nothing wrong with the 'demand' part of tho business—it is the 'supply' which (being excessive) has npsei. the trade.

"Beef has been finite healthy for some time, both chilled and frozen being in reduced stocks;" For some reason or other !■ the Arzentino people have slacked off considerably, and as the shipments from Australia and New Zealand have been nominal the beef market is firm. . ■ "Without doubt, when the summer comes nlont;, and with it the immense numbers of visitors expected in London for the Coronation, the consumption of meat will be enormous, and- a rise in price will take place. ;