THE MEAT TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 18848, 14 June 1920, Page 5

THE MEAT TRADE

NO CAUSE FOR PESSIMISM. WORLD MARKET FAVOURABLE. Speaking to a Southland Times reporter in regard to the meal trade, Mr J. T. F. Mitchell said that there seemed to be a feeling of undue pessimism prevailing in regard to the future outlook for frozen meat, which, ho thought, was not warranted. The Government commandeer would end on June 30, with enormous stocks on hand, if the country had had such accumulations n pre-war days, the bottom would certainly have fallen out of the market, but the position was different to-day. Instead of unamployment, low wages and " depression through heavy war taxation, which in 1916 and 1917 it was prophesied would take place at the termination of hostilities, there was throughout the woild, except perhaps ,n South Eastern countries in Europe, abundant employment at very high wages. Foodstuffs were dear everywhere, due to reasons already repeatedly explained, and arising out of these reasons there was a strong buying power amongst the masses who had more money io spend than ever they had.

"What we are faced with is a superabundance of frozen meat in England, including meal to he landed there soon,” Mr Mitchell went on. "Now take England's other foodstuffs. The supply of Homegrown moat is normal at the pre.-ent time and the prices ruling for it are exceedingly high. It might be said that this is due to guarantees given the producers by the Home Government which expire in July, but without these guarantees prices will continue : i rule high because of the high wages and general prosperity of the country, together with the high prices ruling for wheat, oats, barley, chee.sc and butter, etc. "Then take America, there is no congeetion or over-supply of meat there, nor Ul there in France, Italy and Belgium. The domestic supply in these countries, whether plentiful or otherwise, is exceedingly high :n price. It will be strange, therefore, if a very" low price rules for frozen meat in one "market of the world for any length of time. It might be argued that in the countries mentioned frozen meat has never been popular with the public. In pre-war days the domestic supply wa» more abundant than to-day, and prices wer# quite reasonable, and there was not the inducement to import frozen meat that ther* is to-day. There is ample cold storage ia America' and there are sufficient cold store* on the Continent to enable considerable quantities to lie handled. Is it likely that tl.e Imperial Government with all this meat on hand will sit down quietly and let the market go to pot without an effort to transfer some of it to other countries where there is a shortage? Whether they do this or not is, of course, their own concern, but with ‘free’ meat put into freezing works after the end of this month every effort will be marie to sell it and ship it to any country that will pay a higher price than the Ixindon equivalent and the lower the London price, the greater the effort to find new markets. It may he that the Imperial Government will control the price and prevent the free-distribution in England of their meat, nevertheless the more they restrict the sale the more we must try elsewhere, and if we succeed in opening up new markets, it will be a blessing in disguise. It i* a strange thing that frozen meat, although the trade has been in existence since the eighties, is the only important article ia foodstuffs the sale of which is confined to one market in the world. "In any case the supplies of fat stock available for freezing in the Dominion during the next six months will be very small, and by December and January when supplies become large we will have had the position better defined, and we -will know how we stand. ‘Tn the meantime the outlook, in my opinion, is by no means so hopeless as wa have been led to believe by various public speakers recently-. Granted that more shipping is available, and there is every prospect of this, I think that in another six months’ time the outlook will be much brighter, especially for lamb, which I am satisfied will sell at a pric? at least on a par with what we have received in the past three or four years. By this I do not, of course, refer to the high prices ruling for all frozen meat in England last year. I refer to the prices the producers got here, which were oply 7-8 d above 1914 values."