OUR FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14349, 8 May 1912, Page 3

OUR FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

C OAL STRIKE AND THE MEAT TRADE.

_\ PANICKY BUTTER MARKET.

(rnoii orr. special cohkesi-ondent.) LONDON, March 20. The coal strike has now hern raging for just thirty days, and yet the output of meat at Smithfield is normal, *i nis i s all that need be said to indicate the marvellous stability of tho Home mar- j kets. as prices might bo up for famine or down for lack of transport. As a matter of fact, they are neither, but with tlie advance of spring and the approach of the height of the lamb season, rates are steadily climbing up as it no such thing as a. national strike existed. PROSPECTS OF CONSUMPTION. It is all simply astounding, because one lias only to refer to the morning papers to see a daily list of largo linns closing their works for want of coal, and the out-of-work army must be approaching tl» three million stage. London, however, is fooling the pinch least ot all. though tho report* from Liverpool state that the meat trade is rapidly | becoming duller. Who can wonder at j \lf Strike pay will not last tor ever.; and frozen meat consumption cashire. Yorkshire, and elsewhere in ' the North trom imiv rail away m ■ increasing ratio as the strike continues ; on its way. i REFRIGERATED SHIPPING. I Shipping will soon be seriously disorganised, and my loaders may possibly know that one line at least is tilling a bis lump of tho cargo space of its refrigerated vessels -with tosil, so that-they will not need to coal .anywhere else on the way home. The Argentine services, 'j however, are suffering most, though the great secrecy being observed by nil* the. ; shipping '.-ompanies with regard to the difficulties they are now Tackling, makes , it extremely hard to give the full facts, ; Yesterday I heard that four Argentir-Sj refrigerated meat boats are held up 0:1 the .British coast. One. I know, is a j Nelson liner, another, 1 believe, is a Moulder boat on they» c.st (*oa~st service, and the Royal Mail Company, is ' also, I hear, laying up some of its yes- i sels. ARGENTINA'S POSITION. This disorganisation of Argentine iefrigerated meat imports may, if it continues, place Australasian supplies in a stronger position, though there also is I the fact that if the price of Argentine stock is further cheapened by the stop- { page there will be a reflex action later, and the last state'may be worse than the first. Argentina seems fated to spoil tho market somehow ; if it i>s not beef it is mutton, and if it is not mutton it is lamb. One of the main reasons for the poor complexion of the frozen mutton market atSmithiield now —all except light carcases are weak—is the miserable competition of Plate mutton. I say "miserable" because it is a shame that nearly all the Plato arrivals should contain a majority of meat going out at 3d or a small traction over, although this probably cost the sellers Jd a pound. The 0110 thing necessary to the South Americans is turnover; they care, little, for a whole year's loss .. they can reooup the next, or on some other meat. In the meantime the whole trade is prostituted to their cheapness, and the "Colonial" suffers. LIGHTER i-jTOCKS. For tho present satisfactory state of tho frozen meat market we, in large measure, owe thanks to Australia, which in January reduced her mutton exports■• to the Old Country from the glutting 1911 level ot 600,000 carcases to 276,000 carcases. On market the, total stocks of mutton and lamb arc spoken of as more than, half a. million below those, of last year. March arrivals will," it is true, be in excess of .last year (New Zealand mutton 21)0,000 carcases against 1.70,000., lambs U26,00J against. IiU4,000; .Australian,, mutton 207,000 against','l7p,ooo aiid lairibs 158,000 against lOllOOO), but ; the "market in tho ovait of tho fairly early settlement of tho strike is ready for all this, and 1 should not be exaggerating if 1_ said that West Smith field is quite "chirpy" about the future. A wellknown salesman,. Mr Harry Lawson, of Brewster and Frost's, prophesies ils Gd, ex ship, for Canterbury lamb light through; at all events, tho demand lor lambs is increasing every day. FRUIT* People in Covent Garden who know of New Zealand's success in the dairy and meat import markets are constantly asking mo why the Dominion does not mako a. really serious entry into the apple, trade. It is expected that the present season here will be- a record one for Australia, the Thermistoeles, Ascanius, and the Orsova having ■ started well at good prices. About 450.000 boxes are. to come trom Australia, and more than 700,000 from Tasmania.. Hamburg is an expanding market for these apples, and some consignments have even been shipped over to America last year, though it is a poor speculation so far. THE DROP IN BUTTER. Thoso who have been striving for -1 cheaper butter market have found the coal strike a powerful factor working on their behalt. So strong a hold lia.s tho idea of a, lessened demand taken in Tooley street, that something of a panic. has been raging there during the last few days, and prices Jiayo now receded to 122s to 12 Is for choicest New Zealand, and 2s less for AustralianNaturally this has given margarine- its long-awaited chance, and large quantities of this -product are being pushed forward to take the place of butter m cheaper markets. This is more or less of a disaster for butter, and some people, are saying that things will not recover this ''Colonial" season. The same parties are falsifying tho issue by asserting that it is.the statistical position which is responsible for this collapse ot the butter market, which,, as Euclid would say, is absurd. Viewed statistically, there is no cause for alarm, and I should not be surprised if a week hence, or soon after, things not steady tTiemselvcs.. as not.only is there the great "Colonial" shortage, of which my readers are only too well aware, but the shortage in European-produced imports hero has, as Messrs AY. \Ycddel and Co, point out this week, exceeded 1300 tons in the past tour weeks, an average decline of 36,732 boxes a week marking Australian arrivals for the past five weeks prior to last week, New Zealand remaining about normal. Statistically, then, wo are sound, and I trust that the market will act accordingly.