THE MEAT SUPPLY AT HOME.

Patea Mail, 27 February 1882, Page 3

THE MEAT SUPPLY AT HOME.

The London Times of Dec. 29 contains an elaborate account of the American meat supplies, and the prospects for the future. It appears that, although freights of refrigerated beef have been reduced to 22s 6d per ton of 40 cubic feet—equal to about 45s per ton weight of meat—the trade is not remunerative, and imports of both live and dead meat into England fell off towards the end of last year considerably. This was partly owing to a rise in the American markets, resulting from increasing local demand and the bad season. The British meat market is very sensitive, and in some cases supplies from America have been sold far below cost. The Times, however, regards it as all but certain that with increased facilities for cheap transport the United States will yet be able to supply the English market in average years at considerably less than the present cost of delivery in Liverpool, which is calculated at s£d per lb for beef. Sixpence may at present be considered a standard price at which the trade would pay, and that price, it seems, cannot be relied on. Of sheep, the exports from America for the first nine months of 1879 were 111,451; the number had fallen off in the corresponding period of 1881 to 43,448. The whole cost of ocean transit of fresh moat from America, including insurance and landing charges, does not now exceed one halfpenny per lb, and this must give the Americans an immense advantage over supplies from Australia and New Zealand, at a cost of something like twopence per pound. The above read in connection with the drop in the price of Australian meat reported on Saturday does not sound very encouraging to the exporters of frozen meat.