Lamb Glut In U.K.; Prices “At Bottom”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28980, 22 August 1959, Page 11

Lamb Glut In U.K.; Prices “At Bottom”

[From the London Correspondent of “The Press"!

LONDON, August 10. Prices for New Zealand lamb at Smithfield have firmed at their lowest level of the season so far and traders believe that if the price does not actually rise soon, at least the downward trend has come to an end. After a week of warm weather which, for the retail butchers has been described as “simply awful,” the Smithfield price for prime 29-361 b New Zealand lambs today was Is 7d per lb. Second quality lambs in this weight range were bringing Is 5d per lb. Even English lamb of which there is a glut is fetching only a few pence more than the New Zealand frozen lamb. One importer said that at this price New Zealand lamb was very popular and had a good turnover, though in the last week or so quantities on the market had been reduced. Still, more New Zealand lamb than ever before was being sold and the housewife was finding it a very good buy. If the price were more than a penny or two higher, sales would probably suffer in view of the abundant supply of home-killed lamb.

A great volume of New Zealand lamb remains to be sold in the coming months but if the price does not improve meat firms who ' buy, kill, ship and store New Zea- ■ land lamb for sale in Britain stand to lose an average of 8s a carcase ’ this year. British Subsidy Increased British production eni couraged by subsidies and the . current expectation of quick profits from sheep coupled with the earlier finishing of lambs brought i about by this year’s good sumI mer has produced strong competi- ! tion for frozen lamb on United i Kingdom markets. Last week the > Ministry of Agriculture was pa.y--i ing a subsidy on mutton and lamb ■ to the order of lljd per lb up to a maximum of 601 b. This meant s an average return to the British ' farmer of about 3s per lb. , Under the heading "Lamb Glut i Shock for Farmers,” the agril cultural correspondent of the ' “Observer,” Clifford Selly, said > yesterday that the subsidy on ■ farmers’ returns was running at . twice last year’s level but the i sudden glut had come as a shock I to many farmers who had expec- ■ ted that the high prices of recent I years would continue. “It seems likely, moreover, that the glut will

continue for at least another year,” said Selly. “There is no sign of any slackening in New Zealand production and the latest Ministry census shows a 10 per cent, increase in the number of shearling ewes retained in Britain for breeding purposes. Unless a large number of old ewes are culled this autumn, these young ewes are likely to push next year’s lamb crop to even higher levels.” This prospect could set up a chain reaction throughout the industry, he said. Lowland fat lamb producers would be unwilling to pay high prices for flock replacements from the hills if they had to accept lower market prices, but those most likely to be deterred would be newcomers to sheep who had been advised to start small flocks. “This advice—like the sugi gestion a few years ago to keep a ; sow on every farm, which reduced the pig trade to chaos—has had an unsettling effect on the sheep 1 trade,” said Selly. The surplus of lambs this season has in fact saved the meat situai tion in Britain for neither cattle > nor pigs contributed any extra : supplies this year. i White’s Bridge Demolition.—A , tender of £478 by Messrs G. Wj Pearson and Son, of Rangiora. ! for the demolition and removal tof the Empire bridge—better > known at White’s bridge—over : the Waimakaririri river at Coutts . Island, was accepted by the Wait mairi County Council on Thurs- ; day evening. There were ’ only I two tenders