SOUTH AMERICAN PRODUCE

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21050, 29 December 1933, Page 8

SOUTH AMERICAN PRODUCE

Entry Into World Markets COMPETITION WITH NEW ZEALAND A forecast of the entry of South American lamb and dairy produce into the markets of the world and a warning to New Zealand producers to concentrate upon producing goods of only the highest quality are contained in a letter received in Christchurch from a New Zealand farmer who for the last four years has been living in the agricultural districts of South America. He regards the danger of South American competition with the Dominion's chief primary products as inevitable and adds that New Zealand's only hope of successfully defeating this competition lies in the shiftless Latin-American temperament. This, he says, gives New Zealand an advantage in the matter of quality—an advantage which must be made the most of. "Of recent years there has not been wanting a volume oi complaint from both English and New Zealand authorities about the decline in quality of many of the Dominion's primary products," says the writer. "That many so complaining have had an axe to grind or have laid the blame at the wrong door may also be admitted without affecting greatly one side of the position which must be faced. The number and variety of the protests about the decline in quality of New Zealand butter, cheese and, above all, lamb, make it difficult to believe that all is well with these products." The letter continues that an already sufficiently deplorable state of affairs has been aggravated by an attempt in some quarters to justify the production of a low grade article, by arguments about increased returns and the willingness of the market to absorb unlimited quantities of low-grade produce. "I doubt whether even the most obdurate would retain his conviction of the wisdom of low-grade production in the face of a close acquaintanceship with the present state and trend of South American agriculture," says the letter. South America's Advantages. "The country might 'be described as a giant of agriculture only now waking from its sleep. This is important, since it means that the absence of competition in the past is no guarantee as to the future. Enormous areas of high natural fertility and with an advantageous climate are only to-day witnessing the first attempts at the type of farming to which they are properly suited. Only now is the mechanisation of agriculture coming into its own. The old women who have milked the cows and bound the corn for generations now listen—with considerable misgiving —to agents for dairy machinery, header harvesters, and tractors. The stud stock breeders of dairy cattle or Down sheep (mostly Hampshire, as yet) record increased enquiries for pedigree stock. In short, American and British capital is at last having its say in shaking off the grip of Biblical methods which have strangled primary production for years. "The process of modernisation is only beginning. The natural resources of the country set virtually no limit in area or in soil fertility or in climate. Fertilisers and minerals are available in quantity and variety and in Chile, alone in the Southern Hemisphere, is the potential water-power available for generating electricity greater than that in New Zealand. Land has not been 'boomed' and is still available at a price which is payable. Last, but not least, the standard of living is so low as to be almost primitive, so that wages—gratuities might be a better word in many cases—are on the lowest conceivable scale. Freight to England, too, is a lower charge, so that the production cost.'? of primary produce are a fraction of those for the same produce in New Zealand. The Problem of Quality. "But if the New Zealand farmer has to bow to his South American competitor where cheap production is concerned, this state of affairs is completely reversed when an article (if quality is demanded. Whatever his resources may be—and they give him wonderful advantages—one consoling and important fact remains in the temperament of the South American farmer himself. This is his easy-going and nonchalant. nature—the fact that he is, above all, a Latin-American. Foreign capital has shaken the country out of its state of somnolence, has introduced thousands of pounds' worth oI: the world's best stud stock, and is now engaged in mechanising agriculture, but the biggest opposition to this march along the road of progress js provided by the people of tli(3 country. "As l'ar as they are absolutely obliged they fall in with the changes taking place, but accuracy, exactitude, and attention to detail in any work is irksome to these people, so that even with the best machinery and stock only a degree of perfection is attainable, as local labour is employed everywhere. It is the old story of leading a horse to water. Haphazard Agriculture. "One sees it clearly on all sides. Passing through the wheat growing districts one sees the bullocks ancl their old wooden ploughs working side by side with a Diesel tractor and seif-lift plough. It would never occur to them, even to the man on the tractor, to plough a land the full width of the paddock. Half-way across the driver becomes bored, turns off at right angles (more or less) to right or left, goes on till he feels dull again, and then turns once more, so that there are 'finishes' and 'headlands' in all parts of the field. In the dairying areas one sees the cows being milked in a mud hole, tied to a fence or a couple of posts, while 50 yards away stands an up-to-date concrete cow byre with more than 200 stalls. "One can safely say that in the field of primary produce South America is due soon to show a greatly increased output, which in point of price will leave other competitors high and dry," the letter concluded. "But that the 'prime' article—be it of lamb, butter, or cheese; —will ever be produced in

any quantity it is impossible to believe. Since South American competition is bound to come, and since New Zealand cannot compete on a price basis, let her return to the production of the 'prime' article, for which she was once famous, and so enter a field where her South American friends will have no hope of competing."