Chilled Beef Shipment.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20807, 17 March 1933, Page 10

Chilled Beef Shipment.

Although apparently not completely satisfactory, tlio trial shipment of chilled beef from New Zealand by the Port Fairy gives definite encouragement for perseverance. Tlio cargo is reported to have arrived in modurnlo condition and experts attribute the affection by black mould of sonin of the meat to Jack of experience. Tbcy remarked that the quality of the shipment was admirable. Trial shipments from Australia and South Africa, which arrived simultaneously, are said to have carried we]], the experts deducing from this that the handling; of the New Zealand product at the source, and not the time taken in transit, way the vital factor. That is a problem that only experience cau overcome. If it can be, and that is all that stands in the way of successful shipments, it should not be long before a regular trade in chilled beef is established. Until now the Argentine has enjoyed a practical monopoly of the chilled beef trade with Great Britain. The remote dominions, having to send their product frozen, have been at a distinct disadvantage with their South American rival, for chilled beef commands much higher prices than frozen. Moreover, the Argentine producers have concentrated much attention on improving the quality of their beef. They have studied the requirements of their market and have attained a standard of excellence that assures a ready sale. It was important i therefore that the New Zealand trial shipment should have been of good quality and gratifying to know that it was. New Zealand is capable of producing beef equal in quality to the world's be it. It ia important that if an extensive trade in chilled beef is to be established the good impression created by the quality of tbe first ship-

ments should be maintained. The shipments from the three dominions give hope that in the future they will take a much larger share of the beef trade with Great Britain than they have hitherto enjoyed. There is little question that, all things being equal, the British public will give Empire beef their first preference.