Meat Quotas

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22304, 19 January 1938, Page 8

Meat Quotas

Mr C. A. Coggan, a representative of the British meat trade, discussing the rise of 20 per cent, in wholesale meat prices in Great Britain, lays part of the blame on the farmers of New Zealand, who, he says, "refrained from killing " sheep because they found wool more " valuable than meat" and were thus unable to fill their quota. Both the accuracy and the justice of the complaint are questionable. Since the prices of practically all food commodities have risen in Great Britain during the last few months, there is no reason to suppose that the increase in the price of meat is due solely or even mainly to a shortage of supply. Nor can

New Zealand’s failure to fill her meat quota be explained as the result of a change-over from meat to wool. Possibly there has been such a change-over by a small percentage of sheepfarmers; but it is not likely to have affected meat exports to any large extent. A much more important consideration is that New Zealand’s meat quota is normally fixed at a figure substantially above the average of exports during the previous few years. That is because, in all the negotiations between the British and New Zealand Governments on the meat question, the producer interest has been uppermost. The British Government has sought to ensure a stable market and high prices for the British producer; the New Zealand Government’s objective has been to secure a quota which does not involve any curtailment of exports. It is only since the recent rise in the cost of living in Great Britain that the interests of the consumers have received serious consideration. Finally, it is permissible to remind Mr Coggan that the quota system cannot be expected to work with mathematical exactness in countries which retain freedom of enterprise. And even if production were rigidly controlled by the State, there would still be the weather, to reckon with. Last season, for instance, New Zealand's meat production fell below estimates because of bad weather during the fattening period.