FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16214, 17 May 1918, Page 9

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

MORE FROZEN MEAT AVAILABLE

STORAGE STOCKS

(from OCR SrECIAI, CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, March 19. > A chango has como over the meat market. Rather more than, a mcforth ago frozen meat pitchings on Smithneld were well under 40 per cent, of the total e " supplies. This last week they were nearly 80 per cent-., 3385 tons out of = 4244 tons being imported meat, and £ comprising the following:—lmported beef and veal, 2227 tons; Australian = mutton, 581 tons; other mutton, 341 j tons; pork and bacon, 46 tons; poultry, etc v 190 tons. The total marketing shows a rise of nearly 300 tons on tho previous week, 800 tons on a month ?fP> a decrease on a year ago of 1500 tons. It may be added, as -regards supplies, that the position is -expected from now onwards to get easier, and' frozen meat will doubtless figure more strongly than it has done of late. Rocont marketings hav© included excellent frozen beef from Canada, Brazil, and, South Africa. SMiTHFIELD IN FEBRUARY. Supplies at the London Central Markets during February aggregated 14,752 tons, made up as follows: —Beef! 9636 tons; mutton. 3074 tons; pork, 365 poultry and game, 594.t0n5; rab- . bits, 166 tons ; butter, and marga.rine, 156 tons; eggs, 306 tons; sundries, 455 tons; when compared with February, 1917, deliveries show a do- j ; cline of 8701 tons, or 37.1 per cent. Docreases occur in beef, 963 tons; mutton, 4664 tons; pork, 3826 tons; poultry and game, 493 tons; rabbits, 201 tons; butter, cheese, and margarine, 184 tons; c i*n esss and sundries show increases or 1/6 tons and 454 tons respectively. Sundries comprise most of the items usually stocked in a. f grocery warehouse. Vital meat supplies—beef, mutton, and porkr-tor the month were equivalent to v a ration of 14.6 ounces per head per week for a population of 8,000,000, as against 22.8 ounces per head in February, .1917. • COLD STORAQE. Mr Clynes, the Parliamentary SecreMinistry of Food stated in the House of Commons on the. 21st ult., thatistocks of meat of all kinds held in cold stores and in importers' warehouses in the United Kingdom, on January Ist, were 14 per cent, more than in January last j-ear. Tho increase, Mr Clynes added, is entirely due to items held for consumption by the Army. The iood Controller has now appointed a successor to Mr J, Wardlc, w£ resignZLtY* I^ eetorslu P CoW Storage reiP e i.°7 Sector is Mr A. J. ' n hl ? f surve yof to the Great Northern Railway. The Cold Storage Department of tho Ministry of Food is engaged in helping through several new f r ?£ e underta -k>ngs in different parts of the country, but by the yearend perhaps not more than a quarter of tesffi T T- 1 - CO i storage capacity otthe United Kingdom will have been r me A ,y > an ad ditional 8,000,000 cubic feet. As a matter of'fact at the tho cold stores of tlie county ar ®> « s a yhole, about half empty. Tins should not be, as available food reserves are the great desideratum. THE WAR AND MEAT COMPANIES « M r n A agUO Ne l son ' K.C.M.G., presiding at the annual meeting i n London of Bros., Ltd.fnfade some , concernu »g the current position of the frozen meat trade. He said that the reduction in tho dividend, Mas due,*in the first nlace, to the fact that very little profit had been made on the works in NW Zealand. The Go^ +! 1 bought .111 the meat there, and all the company had to 'do was to freeze it and hold it until the Govern? roent shipped it. They could not keep b£au™ ih 2 1 bkst or an y thi °g like it, ] because the stores were full, and were only relieved at long internals. The • company was totally free from the thev g w P r 'Profiteering." Although +&Jlf n °X makm S much money for themselves they were doing tho best they pould for the Government. By the way Ltd., of the great multirrpnf° Z R n -+ m - eat f etal ] sl, °p companies in Great Britain, has done betted in the dS tfth i® pr sV n 1916 iad kindled to the lowest for more than ten£«ir237nfor at £ ,5\ 703 - Xow it is snor * 0r , 1917 > which permits of a o per cent, ordinary dividend as yfars D ° g for tho Previous three