BRITISH TALLOW IMPORTS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26943, 20 January 1953, Page 7

BRITISH TALLOW IMPORTS

GOVERNMENT BUYING TO END

(Rec. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 19. Another control is to be given up by the Ministry of Food. Government buying of edible tallow and technical tallow is to end and private imports to be resumed. •

The Ministry of Food has been the sole importer of tallow into the United Kingdom since 1939. Bulk contracts with New Zealand and Australia ended last September, and although Dominion merchants could sell as much tallow as they liked in other countries, the Ministry remained the sole importer for the United Kingdom until the present announcement. The Board of Trade is to publish arrangements under which private imports may be resumed. Meanwhile, trade circles anticipate that for every ton of tallow importers buy from New Zealand and Australia they will have to buy three tons from the Ministry’s stocks, which are estimated to be sufficient for one year’s supply.

A big change is reported to have occurred in the demand for and world trade in tallow since the development of detergents by soap manufacturers. Before the war the United States used to be an importer. Since 1945 and the development of detergents, however, the United States has become an exporter of tallow and sells abroad about 300,000 tons every year.

One result has been a fall in prices. While at one time the price paid by the Ministry of Food reached £lO4 a ton, the average world price today for good or fancy tallow is about £5B. Trade circles remark that the change from Government to private buying of tallow will have little effect on New Zealand. The Dominion exports about 25,000 to 30,000 tons a year.