WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 September 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON NEWS

FROZEN MEAT MARKET. (Special to “ Guardian WELLINGTON, Sept. 24. Last week a welcome advance in the wholesale prices of New Zealand frozen mutton and lamb was registered, and this, like the improvement in butter, has been due to delayed shipments from Australia, and particularly from Victoria. The dominating factor in the imported meat trade of the United Kingdom is the ehillecl beef from the South American Republics. Beef is the preferred meat of the British, mutton and lamb being more or less luxuries. Still any improvement in the meat market is welcome for prices have been very low for a. considerable time. The market has been depressed because of the fierce meat war that has been carried on for the past year or two by tht' Anglo-American interests engaged in the meat trade in the Argentine. This contest for market supremacy causell the contending parties to dump chilled beef on the market, and with this relatively cheap meat available mutton and lamb were much neglected. Again and again reports have been circulated that peace had been restored and that business was to be restored, and that business was to be carried on under the conditions prevailing prior to the outbreak of hostilities, that is li!) per cent of the chilled and frozen beef coming from the works of Yestey. Armour and Sv.ifl. anil the balance of 31. per cent from the smaller concerns, lint these reports have lacked the basis of truth. The Argentine Burn I Society has published a lengthy and exhaustive state-] meat designed to show that in the six I months to the end of March last Argentine cattle interests had lost roughly 21.1 b dollars (paper) per steer. ’! here is no suggestion of any combination on the part of any of the big freezers to keep down rates. The complaint seems rather to he that owing to * the inability of the small companies to buy and ship at a fair profit the market is to that extent restricted and sales thereby reduced. The big companies mi the other hand, maintain that the world demand for Argentine meat cannot he increased even by lowering current prices, and that, they themselves are only able to keep on working and make a fair profit because of their admittedly first-class administration. There is a intent fear in the minds of Argentine, cattle breeders that if the small companies were starved out it would he an easy matter for the others to depress prices at the purchasing end, and to raise them .against the consumer of meat. It is stated Hint shipments are roughly two to one, chilled beef dominating and that until free markets can he obtained for the lower grade animals which are shipped frozen and consigned to Continental markets there is not much chance of improvement. Germany, France. Belgium and Italy are not now as keen buyers of frozen heel as they wore, for their herds are being built up and they want to encourage their own nationals to increase production.

A Freezing Commission has been making inquiries into the frozen meat trade of Victoria, and Mr A. H. Cooper, of Sims Cooper Company, Australia 1 ’ll l .. Ltd., and Sims Cooper New Zealand Ltd., who gave evidence, was examined at length on the stato of the freezing industry m New Zealand. MiCooper stated that the industry start-

ed in New Zealand in ISSI, and farmers were the exporters, the companion charging a commission for killing, freezing and shipping. They made no attempt at grading, and took no market risks. Formerly there had been 12 freezing companies, but there were only 33 now, which was too many to work profitably. With the exception of three proprietary companies, all were co-operative with farmer and trader shareholders. 'When war broke out in 11)14. and there was a difficulty in getting shipping space, the works had to increase their storage capacity, and were now nearly all in a bad way. They were called “ War Memorials.” The hull; of the freezing was now done ai. llic seaboard works which could be operated more cheaply. Of the co-oper-ative companies the Hawke’s Bay Company was the most prosperous. It paid a bonus of Id per head to farmer suppliers, and allowed a rebate on charges to exporters. He thought that prices would eventually stabilise at oO per cent above pre-war level.