FROZEN MEAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1941, Page 8

FROZEN MEAT

COOL STORAGE PROBLEM FACILITIES IN DOMINION. POSITION SURVEYED BY MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Cool storage facilities in the Dominion for meat were outlined by the Minister of Marketing, Mr Barclay, in a statement issued last evening. He said that at the outbreak of war the total amount of cool storage available was 16.500,000 cubic feet, representing a capacity of approximately 165.000 tons. Since the outbreak of war a large amount of additional cool storage had been erected, and the total capacity now available in the Dominion was 20,200,000 cubic feet, capable of holding 210.000 tons of meat. The last stock returns received from freezing companies on March 22 indicated that there was in store approximately 156.000 tons of meat, leaving a reasonable margin of safety at the present time. “Apart, however, from the 20,200,000 cubic feet already available for storage, there is an additional 3.240,000

cubic feet now being built under the emergency cool storage plans laid down by the Government,” said Mr Barclay. “Most of this constructional work is now well under way, and a considerable proportion has indeed already been completed, but it will all be ready for use before the end of the present season. The meat storage capacity of the Dominion will then amount to 245,380 tons of meat, before encroaching on any freezer space which would provide a further capacity in an emergency for the storage of 57,600 tons. Therefore, in total, the storage available for this season’s kill, should it be required, amounts to over 500,000 tons, which closely approximates the aver-

age export kill in a normal season. EMERGENCY CONSTRUCTION. “The emergency construction now under way will mean the full utilisation of all the refrigerated materials it has been possible to purchase from overseas. When this programme is nearing completion, the Government will automatically review the position in consultation with members of the New Zealand Meat Producers' Board, 'but up till the present all that could have been done under existing circumstances has been done. “There is the necessity also to take into account the possible dangers of erecting unlimited storage which might mean the accumulation of large quantities of meat to an extent which would render it impossible to secure export with the present restricted shipping programme within sufficient time to prevent serious deterioration through staleness. “New Zealand’s general meat storage position,” said the Minister, “is at present immeasurably superior to that of Australia, in which country, up to a few weeks ago, storage facilities allowed for the holding of only six weeks’ killing of stock.”