DEARER MEAT PREDICTED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 45, 3 December 1949, Page 5

DEARER MEAT PREDICTED

Bulk Purchase Contracts

LONDON, Dec. 2.

Britain was paying an additional £2,000,000 a year because of the bureaucratic methods in meat distribution, said*, Mr Algernon Borthwick, director of the Scottish Housewives’ Association, at Dundee.

“Before the war 400,000 tons of beef came chilled which now comes frozen,” he said. “This frozen beef has to be stored and, estimating storage at £2 a ton, this,' represents £BOO,OOO. There is a loss of weight from chilled or frozen of 2 per cent, which represents a cash loss of £960,000. The extra costs incurred in chartering ships to store meat can be put at £400,000. The cost of retail buying groups through which meat is distributed represents £500,000 and the cost of the meat section of the Food Ministry represents £IIO,OOO. This adds up to more than £2,750,000. There would be an offset for the lower peean freight on frozen beef, but it could not amount to more than £750,000, he continued; “Meat prices are bound to rise because of the bulk purchase contracts, although the housewife may not notice it as it is._ quite easy to conceal by subsidies, in which case she wijl pay as a taxpayer what she saves as a consumer. The reason "meatwill be . more costly is that the Imlk purchase .contracts have been acceptable to the"’producer only because they have always gone up. There is'so far ho instance of any bulk purchase contract being reduced.”