FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22636, 15 February 1939, Page 7

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

NORTH ISLAND LAMB COMPETITION

MARKET PROSPECTS

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, January 26. Considerable interest was shown by the trade in the New Zealand North Island district lamb competition, the entries being displayed at Smithfield by Messrs W. Weddel and Company. The 11 districts competing were Feilding, Hawera, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, Poverty Bay, Southern Hawke’s Bay, Waikato, Wairarapa, Wairoa, Wanganui, and North Auckland. Each district had an entry of 45 lambs for the challenge shield and cash prizes awarded annually by the New Zealand Meat, Producers’ Board. The judges, appointed by the Imported Meat Trade Association, were Messrs F. H. Dennison, G. Way, and C. Woodward; Although the winning pens were splendid lambs, the general quality was not up to the 1938 standard, a large proportion of the carcases tending to wastefulness. It was also noticed that the lambs were on the heavy side, and the condition was not so bright as one might expect. As prime lambs were scarce on the market, the competition entries met with* a ready sale at what was regarded as a highly satisfactory price, considering the dull general demand. Wairarapa, the holders, succeeded in retaining the shield, with Feilding second, Waikato third, and Manawatu fourth. The Lamb Trade Wholesalers at Smithfield do not subscribe to the optimism prevailing in certain quarters of the Dominion regarding the prospects of the lamb season. They assert that the present high prices prevailing for new season’s New Zealand carcases, even primes, cannot be maintained, and the jobbing fraternity go so far as to predict that a top price of 7d per lb is already in sight. In support of their contention, they point to the fact that the trade is hampered by a dragging demand for all classes of meat and lamb in particular, with more than 2,000,000 lamb carcases in store before the New Zealand season is properly under way. The importers have yet to dispose of more than 1,250,000 Australian carcases, while more than 500,000 South Africans have also to be cleared.

There is ample proof that the public will not continue to pay much for meat, while the uneasy international situation is now beginning to have an intensified effect upon the trade. The