WHY MEAT PRICES ARE HIGH

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 42, 12 November 1921, Page 3

WHY MEAT PRICES ARE HIGH

TOO FASTIDIOUS PUBLIC PLAYS INTO RETAILERS’ HANDS

ONLY BEST JOINTS GOOD ENOUGH

From Oiir Own Correspondent. ' Palmerston North, November 9. With the above headings, ths "Pall Mall and Globe" of September 7, introduces an article on the "cheaper food" campaign, and goes on to say:— "More than one explanation of the high price of meat, despite the substantial drop in the value of the live beast, is offered, as, for instance, a strike amongst New Zealand butchers last November, which deprived England of hun. deeds of tons of choice colonial lamb. But whdn all these reasons have been sifted there still remains no satisfactory explanation of the disparity between the price at which meat is sold to- the trade and the price which the housewife has to pay. Meat .prices are fixed arbitrarily by the retailers, and the housewife, by refusing to buy any but the best joints, though thgrff'-js much really good meat on offer, plays unconsciously into their hands, and helps to keep prices at a high level.

Every Retailer His Own Price List.

"The consumer pays. That economic doctrine, a more or less abstract debating point before the war, has come home to us now as an unpleasant and irritating actuality. It affects all classes. It pervades all our requirements, iromtne hat on his head to the. shoes on his feet, and everything ho cats and drinks and smokes, has to be paid tor at enhanced Mates.’ Oh, yes, the consumer pays. And he usually pays a good deal more than h<! “One U1 of the 7 most exasperating features a man and his family have to contend with to-day is the domestic joint It is seldom satisfactory in quality, always hig'h in price. The but cher’s attitude towards his castx> “" appears unreasonable. To suggest that he 'is profiteering- makes him leif angry. He indignantly resents the suggestion, gets red in the face and becomes explosive in temper. ..But what is"’the customer .to make of it? wny is it? Right under his nose, so to speak, is the coveted chop or joint se 1ing at prices almost twice as high as in 1914—for people must buy; they tai to live—and all the time he is told that rarmers are getting less for their cattle -JlO per head less-than they ’were a few weeks ago. For some reason or another the consumer does not beneli by lb. Ml i« nrices ‘There is no doubt whatever, wid a director of Messrs. W eddel and Co., the meat importers and dealers of St Helen’s Place, to our representative, ‘that the farmer is, in many cases, receiving less for his cattle than formerlv; but these prices vary from week to week and oven from day to day, and it would ba most difficult to trace, « Particular transaction through all the stages of the meat trade to the joints offered for sale on the butcher’s counter. While I do not think there is much deliberate profiteering, I think thdre is a great deal in the popular grievance that buyers arc not sharing in the better conditions. The. prices prevailing be tween the producer and the ’'Yholesale buyer are, it is true, subject to s? ddea variations. The same thing applies to he wholesale prices. It all depends on supply and demand. The butchers unfortunately, cannot keep pace with those fluctuations. 3 ' hey aVe ln fixed prices from week to week, in tin. matter many of them, take a too.rigid line. Tn their own interest they should follow the market more closely and. gne their customers the benefit of lower prices. As it is they are sometimes apt to sell at a loss when they should not, and at other times at a gre a *« r profit than that to which they are entitled. AU retailers ,put ton T® r cent; for handling the meat. This, too. in some cases adversely affects the consumer? , __ _ , A “Down-ur der” Deal.

“Mr. John S. Fitter, of Messrs. John S Fitter and Sons, meat dealers, who has recently returned from a visit tp New Zealand, in an interview with our representative, endeavoured to explain the complexities and vagaries of the ’ meat trade. He said: 'The Government had accumulated during the war a vast stock of meat both in New Zealand and Australia. After the war it was decided to get rid of the stock; but the London market at tho time wm over-sup-plied Fortunately, a buyer camo along and took the lot-many thousand quarters of beef, and a very large number of old ewes. This was bought, it was generally understood, to supply what was then thought to be a very considerable craving for meat from Centra Europe. It was not long, however, until 'it was apparent that the craving for meat from Central Europe was over-es-timated. The result was that the meat rejected by Central Europe was at the finish dumped on the London market. Most of this was of poor quality, and in very uncertain condition, and by tho time it reached London some of it was found unfit for human food, owing to the prolonged storage. I merely mention this incident to give yon an idea ot some of the difficulties under winch the meat trade is conducted, and insight into the causes of fluctuations of prices. Strike in New Zealand.

“Mr. Fitter added: ‘Let me give you another instance, even more interesting. In November last they should have started killing lambs in New Zealand, but a butchers’ strike intervened, which resulted in the freezing works being closed down. Now, many of thess lambs were in prime condition, but by the time the strike had ended and slaughtering began again they had deteriorated. They had become mutton instead of lamb. Thus two months of the best London season was lost to the New Zealand trade, and dealers who had bought large quantities for the London market lost hundreds of thousands of pounds. That is what a Dominion strike did for us. The real trouble about the prices of meat is that the market is supplied with only a small proportion of very choice meat, which the ordinary butcher could not possibly offer to hjs customers; so that, althoughtheie is an immense quantity of inferior meat on sale, really prime joints J® 1 ? short. And when people talk about the high prices of meat they are always referring to these prime joints, which they insist oh having. If they would be satisfied with other parts of the animal . quite good meat—they could easily get tons and tons of meat. And prices would level down.” _ , . The article then continues: All tnis does not explain the disproportion between the price at which meat is sold and that at which it is bought. Amp e statistics are available under two heads -the prices paid to the producers ,by the wholesale buyers and the prices charged bv the wholesalers to the retailers. But the retailers issue no price list. They are a law unto themselves, iney fix their own prices more or less arbitrarily- Butchering they say, in effect, is an old trade, and them how to regulate the demand to the supply, and, guided by their experience, they fix their prices. This explains why nrices vary so much. Every district almost every shop or store—has its own standard.” _____