MEAT MARKETING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1941, Page 6

MEAT MARKETING

PROBLEM IN SOUTH AFRICA PUBLIC UTILITY CORPORATION PROPOSED. MEMORANDUM BY NATAL STOCK OWNERS. The placing of the control of the livestock and meat industries in the hands of a public utility corporation similar to the Electricity Supply Commission is one of the radical changes suggested by the Natal Stock Owner’s Association in a memorandum presented recently to the Livestock and Meat Industries Control Board. Several other far-reaching changes which will, if adopted, radically improve the quality of beef and mutton for home consumption and give the consumer “a square deal,” are included in the memorandum. To prevent “speculation, and to eliminate unneccessary intermediaries, which operate at the expense of producers and consumers,” the association proposes that the present system of sale by auction at Union abattoirs should be replaced by a system of grading, with fixed prices over the various grades. This system, it is claimed, would enable butchers to buy the various grades of meat at fixed prices. It would also enable consumers to buy from butchers at fixed prices, which could be varied by the controlling body according to the season. These fixed prices would be arranged so as to encourage the production of the higher grades of meat. Surpluses in the various grades would be exported if suitable, and if unsuitable be dealt with otherwise.

The supply of livestock to the abattoirs would be controlled or regulated as far as possible according to the requirements. These proposals were put forward by the Association, which represents the interests of stockowners throughout Natal, East Griqualand and Zululand, at a joint meeting with the Meat Control Board and organisations associated with the livestock and meat industry.

The meeting was called to discuss 16 Suggestions made by a South African delegation which visited Australia and. investigated conditions in the Australian meat industry. The. association was disappointed to find that the delegation had made little or no reference to' stock improvement or export of meat, particularly as cattle improvement was the main feature of a previous Government scheme. The association considers that the Meat Control Board is wrongly constituted, mainly because speculators, auctioneers and wholesale butchers —none of whom it considers to be “essential to the business"—are represented on it. They would, the Association states, find no place in a scheme suggested by it. In spite of the opposition from speculative and other “unnecessary” interests to anj’ scheme such as theirs would produce, the association is determined to bring about a change which “is essential to the farmer and in the best interests of the consumer."