“MEAT WAR”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 200, 12 November 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

“MEAT WAR”

COMPANIES HUGE LOSSES COMBINE BLAMED As far as we know the “meat war” is still raging, and apparently the losses are going on, states the Australian “Country Life.” A message from Buenos Ayres, published in a London paper, tells us that the balance sheet of the Sansinena Packing Company reveals a loss of 3,422,228 gold pesos, nearly £700,000, which the directors attribute to the meat war that has regard fox the last two and a-half years. The directors allege that big British and American concerns are crushing the smaller companies, and advocates Government intervention in the control of exports of chilled meat to Europe. It has been decided to wipe off the loss by writing down the common stock 30 per cent. The Sansinena Company is one of the five smaller firms who refused to come to an agreement when the “Big Three” —Vestey’s (British) and Armour’s and Swift’s (American) —agreed on their share, which absorbed roughly 69 per cent, of the British chilled meat trade. How Much? Estimates are still being made in England as to the losses suffered by the various companies to date as a result of the “Meat Wax.” One of the latest estimates is £15,000,000, whilo another puts the losses at £20,000.000. Probably the approximate loss will never be known. Certain it is that this “war” must end —and probably soon. The end of the war should be followed by better prices for beef in the British market.