THE PRICE OF MEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 March 1921, Page 4

THE PRICE OF MEAT.

’ FALL IN WHOLESALE VALUES. OUTSIDE MARKETS DROPPED. CHANGE IN LAST FORTNIGHT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. During the past week or two the wholesale meat market has weakened considerably, and prices to-day are very much easier. Most of the large exporting firms have notified sellers that they have reduced their buying price, and 16 was reported to-day that one exporting firm had ceased buying altogether. The head of one stock and station house was asked if the present waterside trouble had anything to do with the fall in values, and he said it had not, The cause of the weak market, he continued, was the fact that the demand! from outside markets had dropped very appreciably The prices of hides, skin* and pelts have also slumped and even at the current low values they are practically unsaleable. To show how values for export havd fallen, the following buying just issued by New Zealand export firing should be read with the greatest interest (a comparison in parentheses is madtf in the case of beef with the quotation! of February 15, a fortnight ago): Beef.V-lOOlb prime ox beef, 25s (42« 6d): seconds ox beef, 21s (37s 6d); prim« heifer, fid (37s fid); prime oow t 17s 6d (265); seconds cow, 12s (20s). Lamb.—Up to 421 b, 7jd per lb; ovei 421 b and up to 501 b, fijd; over 501 b, 5Jd; seconds, 7kl; wether, up to 641 b, 3jd; 64 to 701 b, 2fd; over 701 b, 2|d; ewes, up to 641 b, 2fd; 641 b to 721 b, Ijd; ovei 721 b, IJd. The sharp fall in prices must prov< most unpleasant to those farmers who purchased land during the war period at inflated values. What effect the slump is to have on the financial and labor conditions of the Dominion as a whole remains to be seen. SALE AT STRATFORD. FURTHER DROP IN PRICES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Stratford, Last Night. There was another big drop in prices at to-day's stock sales in Stratford, the decline bqing principally due to the freezing companies limiting their purchases. Store cows realised from 35s to £3 10s to-day as compared with £3 15s to £7 at the sale on December- 7 lai’t year, when prices were comparatively normal. Other comparisons of to-day s prices with those realised in December are as follows: —Forward cows, £3 14s to £4 12s 6d to-day (£9 12s in December); fat cows, £6 15s (£ll 10s to £l3 15s); bulls, £3 2s Gd to £4 (£7 to £ll 18s). No sheep were offered to-day, and the few lambs that were sold realised good prices.