THE MEAT TRADE.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20257, 28 July 1937, Page 6

THE MEAT TRADE.

The annual report of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, for the year ended June 30, records the completion of fifteen years of sound, constructive work in the interests of the primary producers. The Board has been able to co-operate in experiments designed to solve the problems of cold storage and the carriage of perishable goods by sea, has done much to extend the markets for New Zealand meat, and has found many ways to stimulate the producers to pay» increasing attention to quality. These things are dealt with in the report, and it must be pleasing both to the Board and to the producers to find leading British authorities admitting that, in such a decisive factor as quality, the Dominion enjoys a splendid reputation. This, to a large extent, is the result of a competent study of the requirements of the markets on the one hand and. a continued effort to meet those requirements on the other. This surely is the only road to lasting success and with willing co-operation throughout, the meat trade will be able to make steady progress. There are two branches of the trade that have developed with surprising rapidity of late years, namely, chilled beef and the pig industry. The report shows that, whereas in 1933-34 the Dominion exported only 19,576 quarters of chilled beef, the current season will probably see the aggregate exceed 200,000 quarters. Perhaps because it is a recent development the Board, in its report, stresses the necessity for breeding a type of animal suitable for the trade, and for seeing to it that the stock is properly finished off when sent to the works. Efforts are being ipade to secure the facilities needed, including specially equipped railway waggons and specially designed chambers on suitable vessels, and it is evident that the Board will give the producers all the assistance possible in order that the trade in chilled beef may continue to develop.

The growth of the expqrt trade in pork and bacon must have created records. When the Board was established the annual exports were below 40,000 carcases. In the first three quarters of 1936-37 they exceeded 665,000 carcases. And this is merely the beginning. The industry is now in course of reorganisation, and the men in charge of the work appreciate fully the value of type and quality. Already porker pigs from the Dominion have won appreciative notice at Smithfield, and with the producers very enthusiastic this branch of the trade enjoys excellent prospects. The report, as a whole, affords evidence of the productive capacity of the country and shows that no opportunity to further the interests of the producers in the consuming markets is being overlooked.