NEW ZEALAND MEAT TRADE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7821, 14 June 1909, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND MEAT TRADE.

THE SLUMP AT HOME

WELLINGTON, June 13. Mr A. A y Openshaw, a Manchester butcher in a large wholesale and retail way, arrived by the Wakanui yesterday. His operations included Bolton and other large Lancashire industrial centres, and he was therefore well qualified to speak on the slump in • the New Zealand meat trade. To a Post reporter he said the low prices were directly attributable to three causes — (1; Cutting Argentine competition; (2) excessive supplies; and (3) restricted purchasing power of the public. "We on the West, Coast of England must have the meat cheap," he said. "If it is not cheap we cannot look at it. New Zealand lamb has a great vogue in London; it,, is very fine, and is sometimes, but not. so often as you might believe, substituted for prime Homegrown lamb. Many people are unable to tell the difference. Now with regard to Argentine-competition, Swifts, the big American Meat Trust people, are in there. They are cutting prices, pushing the: meat for all it's worth, selling it very, cheap, grading it well, and packing.it in first-class order. It 1 I has "badly hit Australian mutton and: lamb, and is, a3 a matter of fact, superior. But New Zealand lamb still leads. The mutton is too good, too heavy for our West Coast trade. We want a leaner sheep. Just before coming away I bought .Australian lamb at 3Jd for 301bs average weig'ts. There is a very big supply of British (homeraised) sheep and lambs coming right on top of heavy supplies from Argentine and New" Zealand and Australia, and then the people have not the i money to buy, cheap as the meat is. What do they eat when they go. off meat ? Fish mostly; that is cheap when they'can .-get it. To say that cheese consumption increases as a substitute for meat is an absurdity on the face of it. Cheese is dearer than meat as a substitute. As for the retailer, well, he can do very well with really fine second-grade Argentine wethers 1 at 23d. That is what I bought at. But, of course, he wants the turnover; it is not there. at present. Things are still extremely dull throughout" 1 the United Kingdom ; a great revival of trade in the near future was not apparent when I left London."