"COLLAPSED."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 4

"COLLAPSED."

PIG MARKETING SCHEME. EXPERIENCE IX BRITAIN. The three-year-cld bacon and pic marketing schemes have now virtually collapsed (write* the Manchester "Guardian"). Although anw contract year began on January 1, no prescribed concurers exists; the railways have withdrawn their flat rates for pig transport: the Pigs Marketing Board is without an Although according to the terms of'the Greig award, accepted by both parties, prices for bacon pijis were arranged at a somewhat higher level than last year, the to satisfy the bacon "factories! One reason for their refusal was that the price of feeding stuffs rose from under 0/ to 10/ a ewt, and no provision was made for such a rise. Again, the farmers had long been dissatisfied with the grading arrangements and with the large numbers of small factories which they had to supply (in contrast to the centralised system which is at work in Denmark). . The Tigs Marketing Board is now trytracts, but that arrangement * \v?l\ 'fall unfairly on the small man on either side. Among one section of farmers the reason for breaking the scheme was the hope of forcing an impartial investigation, but many of them believed simply that they would get better prices in an open market. Meanwhile the Board of Trade has arranged a bacon import quota for the first six weeks of the year, but, vaguelv though the Act under 'which it exercises this power is worded, there can scarcely the ti m n ,rke°tin-- CO S «??£" i T f%-- Ut , the Board ot Trade shall have regard to the interests of consumers" and if insufficient home-produced bacon is forthcoming to supply the shops at reasonable prices the quota should be heavily increased, if not abolished.