FROZEN MEAT TRADE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 209, 29 May 1920, Page 8

FROZEN MEAT TRADE

COMMITTEE TO BE SET UP

THE SHIPPING PROBLEM

The conference of producers and freezing companies to deal with problems of the meat export trade of the future concluded yesterday morning. A number of resolutions were agreed to by the conference, but these uro to be submitted to tho Government before being made public. It was discovered at the conference that any attempt to deal witih' the complex questions involved by such a liii'KJ meeting was doomeu~io Tnilure. and it was partly as the result of this discovery, made after experience, that the decision was made to sot up a oommittee to deal with detail and to submit a. scheme to the Government, setting out tihe requirements of the farmers and the companies. It was decided that tho committee should consist of ten members—four to be nominated l>y the producers, two to bo nominated by the freezing companies, two to be nominated by the Government, and two representatives of banking institutions. It is understood that one 01 the Government nominees is to bo a producer. The order of reference lor tho committeo is not yet available. J.t lias not, in fact, been definitely but it will be wide enough to P®™'® of tho committee dealing fully with all the problems facing tha meat industiy at present. .. ■ One of tho questions exorcising tho producers is that of shipping iieigi . The position is not so bad as many ol - them had expected, in that there is un assured supply of tonnage. Most of .ho prwlucers 'had expected that there would be a shortago of insulated tonnago, out tho reports are that there is already an ample supply and that it is being increased. In tho ordinary omjd tilings they could expect to Pr°te.ted by trade competition. they *<> u ' d 1)0 quite satisfied now if tho companies were in tho same position as they wero in before the war. when they wero a group of independent wmcerns. In the meantime tho fanners have heard of big mergora of lines and companies, and the meagre Information eiven to them is not fully understood. Tuierefore • they art 1 suspicious. Wlmt they fear is that the companies with whom they will have to deal will" not ho independent hut merely branches of one Dig combine. 110 aim of the producers, as expressed at the conference, is to .meet the companies as a combine of producers, in order to bo sure that the combine ol shipping interests will not try to bargain with groups of producers through individual freezing companies and defeat them all in detail by securing contracts advantageous to tho shipping people. _ Ahis is 0110 of tho important matters which wiU probably be considered by the committee, and perhaps the Government may bo wired, to lend a little assistance in tho bargaining. _____