MEAT PRICES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 199, 5 January 1942, Page 6

MEAT PRICES

EFFECT OF CO-OPERATIVE COMPANY During a discussion of the operation of the Co-operative Primary Producers Society at the last meeting of the Auckland Executive of the Farmers' Union some interesting speculations were advanced by those present concerning the effect the floating of the new company might have had on prices paid for meat. On October 31 of this year the meat schedule detailing prices that meat exporters would be paying for the 1941-42 season was announced. Some three weeks later certain of the meat buying firms published a schedule showing a quarter of a penny per pound increase on lambs and sheep. It is usual for seasonal increases in schedule prices on lamb to occur about Christmas time, when the season is an early one, and these do not as a rule exceed one-eighth of a penny a pound. These increases are arranged after consultation with the New Zealand Meat Board and the Director of Primary Production, but the quarter of a penny per pound increase referred to above was paid without having been submitted to the Director of Primary Production. It was stated during the course of the discussion that the effect of this increase would be to- give, at a conservative estimate, approximately £850 a day more on lambs to farmers than they would otherwise have received during the peak killing period. It was suggested by one speaker that in the circumstances the inference might safely be drawn that the increase in the schedule price could only have been due to the Co-opera-tive Primary Producers' Society entering upon the scene. The Society, which has been established by the Auckland Executive of the Farmers' Union for the purpose of providing a meat marketing service for farmer members, is one of the latest, and to date the most promising, ventures in the field of co-operative enterprise that has been attempted in the Dominion. A report submitted during the course of the meeting indicated that the Society was receiving widespread support from the rank and file of the Union.