N.Z. LAMB IN AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1921, Page 8

N.Z. LAMB IN AMERICA.

AGITATION FOR EMBARGO. Agricultural newspapers in the United States continue to comment on the “invasion.” of New Zealand lamb. A writer in the National Woolgrower discourses on the subject as follows: “Regardless of ho>v the sheep man may feel upon the subject, frozen lamb will continue to come into America until Congress passes a tariff law to retard it. By far the greater supplies are coming from New Zealand, a British colonial possession, yet Canada, another. English colony, protects its sheep industry by collecting two cents a pound revenue, while we admit the meat free. A favorite argument of freetraders is that our present policy reduces the cost of living, but they find it much easier to admit this than to prove It. “One of the first shipments of the meat was brought to New York by a metropolitan daily, and this meat, it must be. admitted, was sold at a reduced price. A string of markets in another Eastern city advertised the meat for what it was, and likewise retailed it 2d or 2£d 'below fresh lamb. But there were exceptions. The greater part of ’the meat has been substituted for fresh lamb, at fresh lamb prices. There is a double injustice in this. The cause of freshly-dressed lamb is hurt, and the dealer makes a larger profit than he is entitled to.

“Sheep men know that the best lamb chops in the world are not obtained in the grill of a fashionable hotel, but in a mountain sheep camp, where the animals are taken right off the range and slaughtered without the frenzied excitement of shipping. As meat so obtained surpasses that which we get in the cities, so does fresh American market lamb surpass the imported frozen product, allowing that the original quality was the same. And the longer the meat is in storage the greater is the gap in quality between the two, a subtle change taking place in the fat of the frozen meat that takes from it the delightful taste and aroma of the meat. Anyone who has viewed the uniform rows of tidy New Zealand carcases in the coolers cannot but be impressed with their compactness, evenness, fleshiness, and original quality. Canterbury lambs as they are graded for export, run as true to type, it has been said, as sovereigns. When slaughtered they are evidently equal to the best we grow, and the meat, as it arrives here, is of excellent quality for frozen meat. But nowhere in the world, not even in England, where the huge tonnages of frozen meat are normally consumed, is frozen meat regarded as highly as home dressed Where laws do not exist prohibiting the retailing of frozen meat as a fresh product they should be enacted. The wholesaler must label his package. Why not the retailer, too?

“Coming back to prices, the best grades of Xew Zealand lamb cost the British Government s|d a pound at the normal rate of exchange. It has been said that the cost of laying the meat down at the coast cities is i.l and a fiaction a pound. This figure seems low. At any rate the first shipments are reported to have cost at Atlantic ports from to 94 per pound. Wholesale prices to retailers were around 12Jd, and the retailer, with a few exceptions, took up the rest of the margin, the I consumer getting no advantage in ; prices. The packers, admitting their profits have been large on the frozen I jamb, ask that their entire lamb trade b(? taken into consideration in figuring dividends. Then they contend nobody ran charge them with profiteering. The retailers maintain that they are only making a living, and doubtless this is often the case, but there are too many of their in the field, just as there are too many commission men.

“There can be no doubt that the unfavorable condition of the wool market has depreciated live lamb values. But the lamb crop is shorter this year to a greater extent than indicated in slaughter figures, for the early South-western crop is above normal, while the later North-western one is away below average figures. Were the frozen stuff not, here prices might reasonably have been’ expected to go higher for the. mtfat end of the lamb crop if the old law of sunply and demand still operates at. all. Certainly production prices are higher, but cost price has no place in the flockmaster’s returns, •

The amount of frozen lamb that has come into this country from all sources is much 'mailer than is commonly supposed. There has been talk of two to four million carcases, but figures for the year to date total less than one million. Slaughter under Federal inspection equals 77 per cent, of total kill. Since May 1, 1920, the United States Bureau of Markets reports 689,081 carcases of lamb from NeV Zealand. Deducting 198,220 carcases already accounted for in May and June receipts, we have 487,767 carcases additional to the above figures, which makes the total imports to date 833,'624 carcases. The average lamh carcase weighs about 35 pounds. That imports will continue throughout the year is assured. The estimated rate of these is from two to four hundred thousand carcases per month. That the present year is the most serious one for the flockmasters seems certain. The tremendous weight of war accumulations, practically four million carcases, in New Zealand on December 31st, 19] 9, or more than a year’s production, in addition to increased stores in Britain, has forced • the meat further inland in America than ever before. It used to be a factor only in coast markets . At the present time England is trying to force consumption

of previous year’s accumulations, sending us only the past season’s crop, as our laws prevented the importation of meat long held in storage. This is proving difficult, as the meat ‘smells to heaven,’ as one Britisher expressed it. Consumption o& meat in England is reported at 30 per cent, below pre-war figures, doubtless because of this and the high prices maintained by the Government. However, it seems only a matter of time until the ‘tight little island’ is using her pre-war quota of each season’s production in New Zealand.”