FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16361, 5 November 1918, Page 10

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

MEAT PRICES. * DAIRY PRODUCE. (by ottr, special correspondent.) >■ LONDON, September :j. y London at this time has been mado a prosont of two pieces of information. The first, moro satisfying than tho a other, is that the metropolis is to have ri a larger ration of homo-killed meat, L . and this, in view of the poor quality of frozen meat releases under existing conditions, is regarded as the improve r nient of a condition which was becoming moro or less intolerable. Tho trade was, in fact, seriously jibbing, and the | ameliorating step has only been forced from tho Ministry of Food by repeated deputations. The other communication, to which 110 less intorest attaches, though, it less directly affects the public stomach, is an official explanation of tho causes of tho rise in price of meat which conies into force this month. The Food Controller, whose aphorism regarding' this turn of the screw—"tho pricc of.victory"—has been laughed at, "■ apportions tho twopence increaeo with. '■ an exactness which would delight the heart "of many actually, but is not it quite so convincing to tho meat trade s who may bo expected to let tho public s know that tho • responsibility does not '' lio on their shoulders, a ' DEARER MEAT. Mr Clynes says that of tho 2d riso, at '> least Id is duo to the increased cost of n imported meat, id to tn©. extra price to ' e bo paid to the farmer, and id to tail creases in distribution and other charges Taking these in reverse order, [- while the last mentioned may bo conk cedcd as most likoly, although Govern--3 ment control of nearly, all factors rcr lating thereto should roducb the chaneo 6. of such imposition, it is evident that with regard to tho second reason, iiamoly, extra farmers' prices, tho Government is acting in good time seeing that fat cattle prices are not to be raised until-tho end of this year. Doubtless, the Ministry of Food feels ® entitled to take a littlo in advance to 1 cover past "losses," though the actuality of these will be seriously - doubted by most people, cortainly by those in tho trade—or those who were onco in it. However, wo have heard a good deal of the inflated costs of n imported meat, particularly that comd ing from tho United- States, which now is regarded as our chief supplier atid i patron in this connexion. Knowledge of the increase became public contemporaneously with Mr Hoover's-return trip j to America from this side, and in view of the greater hold secured by the 1 American Government on tho packing ; 3 industry in its own territory, details | of the cause of the rise have been rather anxiously waited for. They are 8 now set forth in some measure by Sfr 8 William Goode, the Liaison Officer of. h th© Ministry of Food with tho United j a States. » STATED CAUSES. '• After stating that regulations have been imposed upon the meat-packing industry which limit the profits of tue larger packers to considerably less than s' one halfpenny per lb on their animal u! products, Sir "VVilJiam proceeds to ex- * plain that the increase in tho cost of ocean transport on these food supplies ®> amounts to several times the profit per' t lb allowed to the American packer by the. United States Food Administration. Ho concludes his statement, however, by saying that in Mr Hoover's 3 judgment the reasons for • the high cost of meat products from the United States are 1 simply the additional cost 2 of production to the American farmers ' and the additional cost of transportation. Seeing that the Government has transportation matters very well in its . own hands we may-leave, perhaps, the 1' question of rise in this direction. How j" much of the 2d increase is to go to the > 8 United States, wo do not know yet, but ie in view of the fact that meat prices h have already risen by such an enormous is proportion iin the last two or three years, one wonders exactly what are the factors most hardly pressing on the American producer seeing that he now has such an immensely .widened market for- his product, and also never losing sight of that'fact to which I drew attention in a' recent letter, namely, 'that the price of prime freezing cattle in Argentina - has not appreciably risen since the beginning of the war. ■ ■ ■ THE BUTTER AND CHEESE I ■ ■ TRADE. 1- The past butter year has been, as Messrs "Weddel and Co., Ltd., in their n twenty-fourth annual review of imported yearly produce trade say, a period v of revolution in old customs and their ,f adaptation to new methods. The fact r- that , the trade showed throughout the t loyalty and co-operation in assisting 16 the new methods of business must not 7 be overlooked, in justice to the im- £ nortant overseas produce industry. I There are little or no statistics availII able regarding the past butter or rs cheese year, imports being quite hidden * as to totals. It is. to be noted that » between. July. 1917. and the end oi June of-this year New Zealand butter d rose in wholesale top price from 200s to 233-4s and Australian from 194s to d 233-4s.' It is to be noted that tho > present ration of ooz butter and, or, £ margarine, is estimated to represent a r total consumption of about 3SOO tons a week, or 197.600 tons per annum for il civilian population in Great Brii- tam. _ As to the enormously increased s quantity of margarine goint* into consumption in this country, while imports have dwindled away, manufacture in this country has expanded tremendousIv. Sir George Watson. Bart., chairman of the Maypole Co., Ltd.. in January _ last indicating that the annual manufacture in Great Britain in 1917 was 185,600 tons, a quantitv which has , been doubtless very much increased . since then; 3 —