FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15238, 27 March 1915, Page 5

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

» MARKET TENDENCIES. FREIGHT DIFFICULTIES ANT> DANCER.--., i (I'-tOil OCR SrK'-'IM- roKKE-rONDENT.*) LONDON, February 5. Til. I'ntz.u meat market has practically no weak "-pot. and with a rather more, active trade i'or general consumption developing in frozen lamb and. above all. tho va__ and .toady demand from tho Government, prices can only appear to be on tho upgrade. At tiie present moment Australian mutton is being bought by tho Government at pric.. up to sld per lb, the general market shaping its.lf on thiji value. Fi-oxcn beef to-day i. making up to tjjjd per lb at AVe.st Smithfield, and fores up to ..-.d. these being splendid prices for what is undoubtedly only very plain ox and cow heel. Tho Government is taking all tlie- best fro_c.i In I .!'. Sew sen.on".- Now Zealand lambs have done very -well up to 7id. while ('Jd has heen made for good quality old sea.son's iamb.-*. Australian lambs havcj-om. in for tho better market, somo light ear.a.sos from Victoria making as natch •_« O.d at *>initli_ield. TIIK i.;OVJ-lL\.Ml_.\T ANI> PRICE... The above figures afford a gli.mp.se of current frozen meat prices. and with English sides of beef at --..per lb wholesale, and Scotch .ides at B.d, on poor s-upply, one- may i.-tagiue that tho - t i:ii»ii<: if. beginning to realise to tho lull what dear meat is. It is difficult at the moment to gauge the exact effect which this rise, iv price-, will .ll'iinal-iy have on trade, as tho retail output i_ facing by no means normal .o'lditi'oi's just now. Lancashire, as well as Yorkshire, i. now. much of it, in the full swing of feverish industry, .oping with heavy contract work for Government supplies of various kinds, aifd those -working classes which aro engaged in this can f° r tlie timo being afford to pay enhanced prices for meat. In fact, in England just now, almost everyone is paying something moro for every articlo purchased, such is the effect of «',-*.." Everybody seems out to reimburse, hfmself for other losses. Just how fitr this will be ablo to go one cannot say, but -with tho House of Commons now sitting, wo havo immo- ' "'dial, prospect of the Government being urged to tako up control of maximum charges for food. "Whatever it does—and it has not been lucky in its preliminary experiments of -sugar purchase—"it will havo to bear in mind that its own operations a_ a buyer of frozen meat for tho British and French armies has. at least, been tho governing factor in this market. Frozen meat supplies, after all, most largely control the situation, and in this direction ono wonders what is to bo tho effect of the latest phaso of the war. vi„., the German "blockade" of all Home waters. This feature of German "frightfuln ess" need not be so fearfully regarded in respect to froxen meat freights as in connexion with other and moro varied merchandise, as if tlie worst comes to the worst. arriving frozen meat vessels will havo to hang together and be convoyed through should the blockade assume a very serious phase, which many think unlikely. Tt is a tight corner, but British sea commerce will win through. Losses will have to be shu'r-xl. Tho underwriter can hardly expect to lose all; tlie shipowner cannot be called upon te* forfeit everything, and the producer w ; U undoubtedly be called upon to pay his (share by watching, without corrofponuing inc-easo in grower's revenue, n rise in prices due to increased freight charges. FRANCE, THE NEW CUSTOMER. The more. I. regard France's entry as a frozen meat buyer, tho more I am struck by it l " suddenness and completeness. 1 nm told this week that the French Minister of Marino lias expressed himself in the most laudatory terms as to the quality of the meat now reaching French soldiers and sailors, and he add*- that France is assured as a regular customer for frozen meat in ihe future. At the present momo'c French civilians are not getting these import- the French Government supnlvin. its Arm. and Navy alone. Tbe Fr >nch men-o'-wnr stationed nt their depot ports tcccive the meat in nurtrters and carcases direct from the frozen meat vessels, and every French "Tommy" i.nir a ration ot frozen meat, a .half kilo, once every other day. French butchers' shoos are ■•ot yet ixettinrr 'lie .c -uppli.s. but. ->t is anticipated by th*-* French Covcrniiient that as Allies bent the Germans bock to Rhine, fio.e*. meat supplies will have to be worked through i-. tiie inn .b't.-mt.*- of the French.territory which fird.. itself liid w*i..te from 'bo retreat'* ll -' ITtins. Doubtless, poor. R.lgium w'U have to be similarly fed. Vrft-nce will need almost immediately fresh •"•'"■'d ••tor.v.'o denots t<> !••-> erected in lendini" c-nlve-* of distrihiitirm end ee l -s'mtr.tioji, a"d the British irdustry will doubtless -is. tot.be occasion. A NEW SV-STEW OF REFRIGERATION. A novel .s.y*.tem of mechanical refrigeration is being brought forward tids month in London before the industry in a paper which is being read to the Cold Storage and le. Association by an Mr 11. H. Stocki'eld. The claim for this system is that refrigeration can be very economically produced at tho rate of as much as 29 ton . of ice per ton of coal, reckoning <••>• the basis of ice manufacture, and this is about double the efficiency of any existing process. Tho -system may be called a modified system of ammonia absorption, the ammonia in the plant being absorbed by a special kind of salt instead of by ordinary water, as in the well-known absorption system. The development is certainly an interesting one, and much more may be beard of it if certain difficulties art suec-ssfullv overcome.