PIG INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 150, 21 March 1939, Page 8

PIG INDUSTRY

Development In Dominion Advocated LEAN TYPE OF CARCASE The opinion that, as the United Kingdom market for New Zealand mutton and lamb had to a large extent reached saturation point, the farmers of the Dominion could well turn their attention to the pi.g industry was expressed in an interview yesterday hy Mr. F. C. Mason, manager of the meat department of A. J. Mills and Co., Ltd., London, a Tooley Street firm of produce importers which has been connected with the New Zealand trade for many years.

Mr. Mason, who is visiting Wellington in the course of a tour of New Zealand, said that the purpose of his visit was to obtain an understanding and appreciation of the difficulties of those on the other side of the world. He had visited both the South Island and the North Island and had met all the people prominently connected with the meat trade. . “Quite apart from mutton and lamb, I am particularly interested in the possibilities of the pig industry in this country,” said Mr. Mason. “At the moment Australia and New Zealand together export to the United Kingdom only about 2 per cent, of the bacon imported into Britain. It seems to me that there is a golden opportunity to develop this market tremendously and I have no doubt that the British Government will let in from Australia and New Zealand much larger quantities if they are available.’’ Mr. Mason urged farmers to look on the pig industry as an important and lucrative part of their farming operations and not merely as a side issue. The Dominion, he said, had built up a wonderful lamb market by shipping the right type of carcase, and if the pig industry were to flourish that was an important point to bear in mind. The market in England required a fairly lean pig, though there was,, of course, an outlet for the fatter type. Mr. Mason said he would not like to suggest what breed should be bred, as it was a controversial subject, but so far as he could see there was nothing to hinder the development of the industry along sound lines in New Zealand. Mr. Mason is to leave Auckland on April 3 by the Mariposa for the United States and Canada, where his firm has business interests.