MEAT MARKETING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 376, 10 November 1932, Page 2

MEAT MARKETING

CO-OPERATIVE PRINCIPLE. Gisborne farmers who attended a meeting of th'e Makaraka-Matawhero Hall on Wednesday night were interested in a suggestion that the co-ope-rative method of selling pigs should be extended to embrace lamb, mutton, and beef (states the Poverty Bay Herald). This phase reoeived only passing mention, but it was one which held vast possibilities. The meeting was one which was addressed by Mr. N. W. Hastings, general organiser for the New Zealand Co-operative Pig Marketing Association^ whose forceful criticisms of old marketing methods and an outline of what the association had done already for the farmer impressed the gatbering. The only mention he made of the proposed extension of the co-operative marketing scheme to other meat products was when he reviewed the great progress made by his assoaciation in many parts of the North Island.| He said it was rapidly growing into an important Dominion-wide orgariisation of dimensions he had not believed possible a short time ago. The Manawata, Wanganui, Taranaki, and Far North of Auckland areas were supporting his association wholeheart'edly, while Gisborne had also entered enthusiastically. He give no estimate of the total numberl of pigs the association would handle during the present season, but he, believed that the Auckland district alone would contribute 60,000 pigs. A member of the audience suggested that the aggregate from all districts may total 100,000, Raising bf- Prices. Cb-ojperative ihafke.ting' principles inv regard to meat had SO impressed farmers that he had been aslced by graziers' representatives in one district to organise lamb, mutton and beej; along similar lines. He made no further mention of this aspect at ihe meeting,- but in regard fo. pigs he showedhoj^farmerf^wojuh^jjta^^T

surplus, and eveii supplying local consumption with its requirements, Speaking afterwards to a pressman, he said that his time was so greatly takan up with the pig industry at pre- . sent that he had not had an opportunity of giving this phase deep consideration, but h'e believed there w;ercgreat possibilities in it, but it Would mean a vast organisation. The greatest possibility for success was in regard to beef. A substantial portion of New Zealand's beef killings Was constihied in the Dominion, and this proport'ion was greater than in regard to the lamb and mutton. With beef, as with pigs, "it should be pOssible to influence- the local market sufficiently to improve prices for the farmer. The organisation of lamb and mutton might prove a more difficult matter. The prospects of the proposed extension have been discussed already in Gisborne, and there appears little doubt that Gisborne pastoralists wiil give the matter more than passing attention, more particularly in view of the very low prices being received for all classes of meat, especially beef. Mr. Hastings mentioned that his association had been responsipfle for raisinig the value of pork from the lowest-priced flfeat to the highest during the five years it had been operating in the Waikato. There were indications that much benefit could be given to beef as well.