DOMINION MEAT IN AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 18856, 23 June 1920, Page 4

DOMINION MEAT IN AMERICA.

A few days ago we were supplied with details of the publicity given to the arrival of New Zealand lamb in New York, but it is evident that the invasion of the United States was not confined to the commercial capital of the republic. The Kansas City Journal of May 22 contained an account of the arrival of this country’s pro ducts there as a means of “fighting the H.C.L.” The newspaper stated that this was the first occasion on which lamb chops from New Zealand had been offered for sale in Kansas and it revealed that this particular consignment had reached Kansas after a journey from the Atlantic Coast, evidently under the auspices of the Armour Company. The prices given were; “Chops, 45 cents a lb, quarters 36 cents, shoulders 24 cents,” and it was evident that the demand was keen. The consignment was an experiment, it was stated, and one of the immediate results was a general decline in the prices of meat in the local market. The Kansas paper revealed that the lamb had come originally from the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company and it seems fairly clear that the meat was part of a shipment landed at New York, presumably from the Armagh. The cost of transportation must have been heavy but the consignment was able to compete advantageously with the locally grown meat, and judging by the enthusiastic opinions expressed about* it, the reputation of Canterbury lamb was thoroughly established. The fact that meat taken to America by the Armour people was spread fairly extensively in the country leads to the conclusion that the Trust was anxious to use the Armagh lamb for the purpose of blazing the way for much bigger operations in the future. New York alone could easily absorb large quantities of our meat, but if, as the report in this Middle West newspaper suggests, the market being prospected extends widely across the United States the demand might easily develop into extraordinary proportions. A great deal of the newspaper stories can, of course, be discounted as the result of American publicity methods but there can be no doubt that the Annou- interests were keen to use tbj meat acquired from the Imperial authorities in a much bigger way than the first count of their operations suggested. It would be interesting to find out the extent of the area over which the Armagh’s shipment was spread, interesting especially to the meat producers of this country to whom this exploitation of our products is of moment.