OUTLOOK FOR PIG MEATS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27603, 9 March 1955, Page 15

OUTLOOK FOR PIG MEATS

OVERSEAS MARKETS LACK STABILITY

(New Zealand Press Association) _ AUCKLAND, March 7. ■ xx. great are the stocks of pig meat m the United Kingdom and so sudden tell in price for light pork been within the last six months that the New Zealand exporters can expect no stability on the British market in the immediate future. This is the opinion of a spokesman for the pork exporting trade in New Zealand.

Not only had the market collapsed, he said today, but it was likely to sink even lower. The position would not improve until t^ie Brit ish Government worked oft 250,000 tons of meat stocks which it held when the market controls gave way last October.

The latest official figures showed a 20 per cent, rise in pig meat production over that of last year (a total of 1,300,000 tons or twice New Zealand’s total production), but since July, meat consumption in Great Britain had risen by only 13 per cent. "The British market has been weakening for some time,” the spakesman said. “On October 1, with the end of 14 years of market controls and fixed prices for all classes of meat, the London price for light pork began to fall—it was then 2s 2d per lb. Last week it was Is 4d per lb. In Brtain last week, local and imported fresh pork sold for as low as Is per lb.”

Whereas the New Zealand farmer was getting Is 9d per lb in October for his light-weight porkers on the hooks, he continued, the current price was Is lid per lb on present trends. This was likely to drop still further. “The consensus of trade opinion here and in the United Kingdom,” the spokesman concluded, "is that no stability of markets can <be expected until British precontrol stocks of about 250.000 tons (both imported and home-grown meat) been consumed.”

Apart from ureat Britain, New Zealand had, he added, no other market of any consequence for her pig meat surplus.