ON THE LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 720, 20 July 1929, Page 29

ON THE LAND

World’s Meat Market

An Interesting Review

LOOKING back over the 1928-29 meat freezing >oasou it must be admitted that, all things considered, it was :1 very satisfactory one from the point of View of the man on the. land, particularly in New Zealand, Where keen competition gave them a ready market in the paddock. An interesting review of the factors influencing the market is contained in the 4lst annual review published by Weddel and Coy. covering the year 1928.

Without providing any outstanding incident. the year 1928 might be regarded to have been a satisfactory one to meat produvers in most parts of the world, states the report. Later it continues to make these remarks takel in the closing months of the 1928-29! season. For London importers and: the trade generally, conditions during; the 1928-29 season showed some im“ provement over recent years. The market for beef was affected partly by i a decrease in supplies from South‘ America, partly by a shortage in sup-I plies of Home-grown beef, and to ai certain extent by the stoppage of ship- i menu from Canada. ; One of the outstanding features oil the trade was the way in which the‘ market absorbed an increase of nearly I one million carcases of lamb. Despite - this increase, prices held up to compare most favourably with those of: the past Year. Weddels stress the point that Great Britain, with her large industrial population is the only important country in the world which welcomes the last season’s price levels. Agitation from the farming section has resulted in legislation bringing about a reduction of well over 50 per cent. in the imports of frozen meat into Germany over the past three years. During 1928. that country im-i ported only 87,726 tons of frozen meat. 1 compared with 132.652 tons during the previous year. Germany was taking meat which otherwise would find its way on to the English market. Italy has not been any use to New Zealand, but one of the outstanding features of that country’s imports has been the increasing demand tor veal. During 1928, 54,900 tons of frozen meat were imported into Italy. chiefly for the northern provinces. This included 6,000 tons from Australia and 10,000

tons from Russia. It is expected that: this quantity will be considerably in-l creased during 1929. A move has al-‘ ready been made by the farmers tohave a. duty imposed on frozen meat imports, but so far this has not been taken seriously by the Government. Belgium and Holland. small importers of frozen meat, both registered a. decrease in the amount of frozen meat ‘ imported during 1928. The position in regard to France from the overseas producers’ point of View is most unsatisfactory. as a heavy minimum duty of .789 d 3. 1b proves a substantial barrier to overseas producers. Looking to the season 1929-30 Weddels give a somewhat guarded view. They admit the shortage of U.S.A. beef, but appear to hold the view that little can be expected from that quarter. Prospects on the British market, the only one worthy of serious consideration, are considered to be sound. however. and it is not thought that there will be any serious change from last season‘s price levels.