MEAT SUPPLIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 February 1920, Page 3

MEAT SUPPLIES.

THE AMERICAN COMPANIES. SOME INTERESTING REVELATIONS. The meat supplies of the Empire were investigated recently by a British Interdepartmental Committee, which had been directed to "consider means of securing sufficient meat supplies for the United Kingdom." Copies of this report have reached the Minister of Agriculture (Hon. AV. Nosworthy), who handed a Dominion reporter the following extracts as being likely to interest New Zealand farmers:— "Swift and Company entered the Plate in 1907 by puehase of the La Plata Cold Storage Company; and in 1908 Swift, Armour, and Morris acquired the La Blanch Company. In 1911 Swift dropped out from the latter company, leaving it to the other two. The American companies l enlarged their works and soon entered on a campaign of aggressive competition. Up till November, 1911, there was no agreement between them and the British and American companies, but after a price-war in that year an. agreement was made which lasted till March, 1913, Morris and Company then complained of their share of the trade, and this: dispute (generally regarded by the British trade as engineered) produced another fight, characterised by the forcing up of cattle prices in the Argentine and the depressing of moat prices in England. After fifteen months' fighting the British companies were forced to accept a serious reduction in their percentage of the trade. The agreement then concluded governed tho allocation of the Government contracts when war broke out, and further modifications were made in HIIO and 1918 to admit of works at La Plata and Morris's new works at La Plata and Morris's sew works at Monte Video. The following table shows the movement from 1909 up to 1910:

Conference. Dec, Jan. 1911. No. to to limitation. Nov., Mar 1909. 1910. 1911. 1913'! . Ppr I'er Per Per British cent. cent. cent. cent. companies 37.0 33,9 30.2 32,5 Argentine 27.7 24.9 25.1 2<M) American 35.3 41,2 44.7 42'il 100.0 100.0 100,0 100.0 No limitation. Conference. April, June, 1013, 1914, to, to June, July, Wl4. 1910.. Briteh p el . cent . Per cent companies . . 24.4 20.4 Argentine .... 17.6 14' c American .... 58.0 59^0 100.0 100.0 ''ln 19Q9 there were three British companies, two Argentine, and two American (Swift and La Blanea); in 1914 two of the British companies amalgamated and the works of one of the Argentine companies was taken over by an .American company (Sulzberger, now Wilson and Company). During each period of 'conference' or agreement the American companies retained a part of the trade they had taken awav dnriuthe preceding period of intense competition, thus improving their position. "in 1916 Armour and Company's now works at La Plata were opened, and in 191S Morris and Company's new works at Monte Video; on both occasions the associated companies agreed to reallotment of their shares in the Government contracts and in the private trade, the result being a reduction in the percentage to which the British companies were entitled. The British Government, in the stress of a great war, were not in a position to insist on the maintenance of the British percentage. Omitting for the moment the output from Vestey Brothers' new works at Zarate (opened in 1910 and not in the conference), and the output from the Las Palmas works (opened since the autumn of 1915 on behalf of the Board of Trade), the effect of the re-allotment in favor of Armour and Morris was as follows:

From Aug., 1910, June, to May, 1918. 1913. per cent, per cent. British companies .. 22.8 21.1 Argentine companies 10.1 fi.s American companies 071 08.1 100.0 100.0 Taking the total output of all the Plate works we get the following approximate division to-day:— per cent. Original British companies 15.5 Vestey and Las Palmas 1(5.1Argentine company 8.2 American companies 57.2 "The American meat companies have continued in the River Plate territory In co-operation, interrupted by periodical fights to secure a larger share of the trade from their competitors; the two original British companies and the remaining Argentine company were forced into a 'conference' for the division of the trade, and there is little doubt that had not the war broken out there would lave been another disruption of the; agreement to secure a share of the trade' for Armour and- Morris's new works. 'The American companies have some 45 per cent of the capacity of the freezing works iri Patagonia, about 75 per cent, of that of the works built or building in and they are developing Paraguay."