THE WORLD’S MEAT

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28008, 30 June 1956, Page 7

THE WORLD’S MEAT

GREAT INCREASE IN OUTPUT

Improved pastures and better grassland management are beginning to show their effect on world production of meat. Today world output is more than one-third greater than pre-war. says the Commonwealth Economic Committee in a report on meat production, trade, consumption and prices. Much of the increased output is being consumed in the producing countries (particularly South America), but. even so, world trade in meat is back to its pre-war level. A good deal of credit for this goes to Commonwealth countries which, in 1954, contributed more than one-third of the beef exported and a fair proportion of the mutton and lamb. The United Kingdom continues to import more meat than the rest of the world combined. In spite of this, consumption per herd in the United Kingdom is still well below the 1938 level and is far less than in Australia, North America or the meat-producing countries of South America. For example, the consumption of beef per head in 1954 was 431 b, compared with 891 b in the United States of America. 1191 b in Australia, 1751 b in Uruguay, and 1851 b in the Argentine. The comparative pre-war figure in the United kingdom was 551 b.