BRITISH BEEF MARKET

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28001, 22 June 1956, Page 15

BRITISH BEEF MARKET

FARMERS AFFECTED BY IMPORTS (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, June 21. “The fall in fat cattle prices is unwelcome to British farmers even though the Government subsidy 1 has been raised,” says the agricultural correspondent of ‘‘The Times.” “The ■trouble from their point of view is that prices are influenced by the weight of imported meat as well as by what the farmers themselves produce,” he says. “Lower market prices for fat cattle are not caused by any real surplus of beef. In fact, increased home production and heavier shipments of Argentine beef are only now bringing meat consumption to the level to which this country was accustomed before the war and living standards have risen considerably since then. More families can afford to buy good quality meat and the continuing high level of prices in butchers’ shops shows that housewives are ready to pay for quality. “Argentine chilled beef has again become a close competitor and so far as can be foreseen supplies are likely to continue at fully the level shipped in ■ recent months and they may be more.

“Shipping sets a limit to the amount of beef sent as chilled rather than frozen, but we must, it seems, expect quite as much as in recent months. There is also a prospect of more beef cattle being produced at home. The prospect of larger supplies of homekilled and chilled beef is evidently welcomed by the Government. “Ministers would like to see the retail price of meat fall as an item in the cost of living even though lower market prices for fat cattle and sheep will involve the Exchequer in bigger subsidy payments to home producers. The ministerial view is that meat prices at a lower level than now would suit the country as a whole.”