FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15121, 10 November 1914, Page 10

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

ERA OF DEAR MEAT

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES

{r&OU. OtTR SPT.CTAL CORRt^rONDEKT.) LONDON, October 2. In spite of the severe limitation -of tho output of frozen meat in" the ordinary channels of public consumption, owing to the effect of tho war on the financial resources of the masses, it may be safely said that the great demand springing up for the victualling of the British and French armies and navies has taken the price of frozen meat beyond the level at which it formerly etood. "Will it ever return to that level? For years prophets have been predicting dearer meat, but although rates hare climbed slowly upward, the extent of the prophecy was never fulfilled. New resources seemed to restore the balance and frozen mutton at 3i<l (Smithfield price) an institution which nothing coulQ breaK down.

IS THE CHANGE PERMANENT?

Last year ye were told that Uj would bo the last of cheap meat, that at last demand had overtaken supply, and that in fnturo we must look for an appreciable rise in tho price of meat. True, the wholesale rates had tor some time borno more heavily on the retailer, but tho latter had not been able in all cases to pass it on to tao public. But when 1914 eamo no startline rise came with it. Meat was certainly bought moro dearly in Australia antl New Zealand, and let it here be noted that had the preat war not eventuated, many of those companies which had been big buyers of mutton early on in the year would have had their balances come out on tho wrong side nt the selling prices which this vonr had produced. "We can now say with our Ally's fjreat dramatist: "Nous fvons tout cela." ' The war has made 3Jd mutton a thins; of the past and forward trade, which is now proceeding at something like _5Jd, is a dea'ing which it is felt is quite justified by circumstances. Market prices of GJd for North Island lambs, s|d for New Zealand mutton and 6Jd for New Zealand hinds, with s?d for fores, are rates that have not their equal in recf't times, but it is more important still tliat the future shows no "release from them for the consumer, and thus this entry into an era of dear meat or>e"K "t> a whole host of new ideas and TK>j\sibili*>es. As I said in my last letter, France havincr once tasted frozen meat in Tw millions can never leavo it, especially after licr own "attle resources haro been decimated by war's f"~l< anrl Germany, who will vrnJvnhlv kill her last ounce of meat, will be for"*"! to 1»j"i even m-oro heavily on outside supplies. ,

SOME POSSIBILITIES. But now as to possibilities. Incidently the rise in pneo must effect of a re 'valuation of. the stock resources of all the sources of production; wo find tho influence working already in unprecedented prices, for instance, obtaining in sales of freezing cattle in Bouth America. However, that is a matter for stock raisers themselves. The leading question hero is how will the higher prices affect tho ultimate consumption of frozen meat. Already retail prices of this commodity have advanced 2dpor lb, in many instances, or just double the rise in price of prime homo-killed meat. .It was one of tho old problems of tho frozen meat trade that you must always beware of the swing of tho pendulum ; a 3d market rise might bring down consumption with a run and punish you with more than equivalent reaction 'm tho wholesale market. It is a moot point as to whether that •swing of the pendulum would occur now. Market fluctuations will always rule, but tvo hay© to consider that for an over-increasing class in Great Britain and elsewhere it may soon be a Question of frozen meat or nothing. Knowing the firm prejudice of the snobbish middle and lowed-middle class, I am confident that it is only dire necessity that will open out for frozen meat a market among .better-class customers, but the enquiries that I have been making among shoos in select residential neighbourhoods show one that this moveiment has already begun, and it indicates that thousands of families who before would not look at frozen meat aro now asking for it.

CANNED MEAT. At the present moment canned, meat is receiving in proportion to the total dimensions of that trade, an even greater fillip than the frozen meat industry. Tinned meat does not properly come under tho title- of this column, but a word or two concerning it here is_ apropos because of its competition with frozen meat just now. For one thing I hear that several firms are as busy as can be tinning meat at Bordeaux, though., whether they aro using tho frozen nidat supplies recently taken to that port and held in the harbour in refrigerated holds, I cannot say. France hae not much cold storage accommodation, and the 8000 tons of frozen meat she has received in the last five weeks has had to be held in the vessels carrying it there, a« well as filling up the Marseilles and Paris stores. . This canned meat trade is assuming very big proportions just now, the demand from tho various armies being a tremendous one for tho 6mallo.r size tins of one and two-pound capacities which can be carried by the soldier in his equipment. Australians and Amerioans are both sharing in this trade, and tho Armour Company is one of the biggest, contractors, having secured a contract with Great Britain and France, I am told, for no less than a million pounds of canned beef. The Oudah.y Company has also a contract for a yoar's output, so that the Americans are doing very well out of tho war, on canned meat alone. AMERICANS' SHARE IN BRITISH MEAT CONTRACTS.

As a matter of fact, the Americans will _bo supplying probably the major portion of the ten thousand tons of ! frozen beef n month ordered b\- the Brit.sh Government from the Argentine works, ail tho chief South American companies sharing in this, and Swift's and Armour's bciti-i. of course, the biggest operators. It w:is this British Government contract which helped the Argentine coinpan.es out of the hole they found themselves in at the start of the war. when tho collapse of credit altogether stopped their operations for a while. Now they have the Bank of England behind Uiem. By the way, one would have thought that at this time of need, France's colony, Madagascar, would have been able to play a greater part than she has in supporting her Mother Country with frozen (meat, but, as a matter of "fact; no frozen meat at all is going to France from Madagascar, but tinned meat is being prepared in large quantities, I understand, from the meat works owned by Messrs Vesiey at Majunga. At the moment, there is only one meat works operating in Madagascar, although we may soon hear of one, if not two, other factories getting to work in different parts of the island. j