SPECULATION IN MEAT.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20919, 28 July 1933, Page 13

SPECULATION IN MEAT.

LONPON COMPETITION. y I IDOBESS BY MR W • H- 15. FLINT. ! . . [ opinion that the meat trade was (toy the most speculative business Mt could be found anywhere in \Ljerce was expressed by Mr W. H. fflint, chairman of directors of the Lf Zealand Refrigerating Company, in address given yesterday at the Lt monthly luncheon held by the rnterbury branch of the Certified Acuntants' Association of New Zea--1 ?«A He remarked that buying and \ Ss practice had changed radically ! w* the war, and that to-day opera- ■ 'Ss were often working with an unzLm quantity from week to week Sr 88 prices were concerned. MrFlint. who remarked that he had J5! associated with the trade for 35 Jau- said the competition within JhTmeat trade in London was parKrly keen. The farmers in New ztaSna were never satisfied if the «di«poke in terms of one-c jhth of "oJany a pound, always preferring to J*3l9t price levels with a minimum jf«)a farthing a pound for comparator purposes. A salesman in London Iven thought in terms of one-six- ! f-entb. of a P er >ny a pound, and if he could negotiate a deal for this fraction better than anticipated, he would he Y*ry well satisfied. WJW one considered the huge quan- : Met handled in London, it could be 1 seat that even one-sixteenth of a : jenß* In price would mean a consider- [ aUMmount. Mr Flint said that before i ,|, e war he had sold one firm a total _#«000 sheep within 48 hours, one onto? being for 40,000, followed by another of 20,000. Things were different to-day, and one would not find many firms buying in such large : quantities. Betofe the war the general practice was to sell on c.i.f. terms, and very often on forward shipment. It would be a common thing for a firm to sell anything up to 150,000 lambs in a month or six weeks, but there had been an almost complete change since the war, The meat trade had become a spMtllative business, and the market lad reached such a stage of uncertainty that buyers had lost their con[Mene*. It was most difficult to induce than to operate forward, and the meat Hade had become a "most extraordinary gamble." Far from the Market. Twlay, those in the trade made ttejr calculations for future operations en what they thought was a sound basil, but it seemed that statistical calculations which could be relied on before the war would not "work out." Aid fact was that the trade had reaped itself into the most completely iettilative business that coulcf posI jpy be imagined in the world of f pmerce. Operators "did not know [ where they were from month to \ : month, and often from day to day." [ The New Zealand meat trade was [ htndicapped to a certain extent bo[ttuse the Dominion was from 10 to 113 weeks away from the London market, and it had to compete with South [America, which was only about four weeksvaway from its market, and which was handling a line which New Zealand could not touch with any great weeess at the moment—chilled beef. In describing the various stages of fork in a freezing works, Mr Flint ijdthat formerly one man in a works U every thing to the sheep. Last year, Itfwer, the chain system had been produced as the result of a- strike. Ijis was not a new system, for it had , |en in operation in America for many ; jan It was questionable which was 1% better system, but he thought the • Wtin system had come to stay in this jMffitry. The working of the system j ward the end of last season showed mit was just as good, and In some Wances better, than the old method. \ 'Jit Flint was accorded a vote of fthttks for his address.

, ENGLISH MEAT I MARKET.

if || MUTTON AND LAMB If SELLING WELL. CgILLED BEEF DEVELOPMENT. I ifl&nn raess association—»v el.bctaic i TILIORAFH—COPYBIOHT) | * (Received July 27, 8.40 p.m.) i ? ij? LONDON, July 27. i J&Qllgh mutton and lamb have reityi slightly from June prices, due Vjgfo to the hot weather, the posjtjjptt Smithfleld remains unexpectIjW |ood, and largo quantities are being sold. Beef, however, is .ThWrse, and frozen stocks are ac(."Phtlng by thousands of quarters , .«£_ the first time for several months 'fljgjlto secured a contract for Sep--25* delivery of 300 tons of frozen •JPIPr the Belgian army at 2id per ■JSJgwh is more than the Brazilian Sfjgon, but Brazil, at lid, secured Ttwtober contract. «g» United Press Association learns JgJwbwicks have arranged for the SSptttlcm of chilled beef shipments and New Zealand, in Jgwpe of achieving a commercial ;|WijU)ased on the profit made on Ijtfwt Fairy shipment. JP, Problem of the gas-chilling jgW recently employed is to pregas from escaping. This, it th? 9* 1 t will be solved by increasing oSJTOmber of bulkheads in ships in jT w »eal the meat hermetically, fldfc * n(Jerst ood that the specificaWE * or the refrigerated ships rejSflfWdered for the Australian and r" Zealand trade provide for this.

; FRUIT EXPORT.

SALE IN LONDON,

MINISTERS PRESENT. fc. ■ LONDON, July 26. 'jiff*"' Hon. G. W. Forbes, the Hon. and Sir Thomas Wilfovd at Spitalfields for the sale of New Zealand ™t*{)^.Pears for several weeks. srfr.V lf ,, an hour 9000 cases of m deluding 3300 from New Zeam*ere sold. jjgjyauctloneer £>t a subsequent Maimed that the prices jus:lgL*s* Policy of cold storing New WEzS&W during the last few fSiSI.H Prices. Granny Smiths fetched >Hkm o a case; Doughertys 10s MB'ff' Sturmers 9s to 9s 6d; TnsflK'SL ' Rome Beauty 9s: Winter ■ffijwws 14s to 15s a case; trays IMP* 4s.