MEAT PRICES

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28987, 31 August 1959, Page 8

MEAT PRICES

Export And Retail Comparison

“As a very rough approximation it can be said that the meat producer gets about 5d of each shilling that the New Zealand consumer spends on meat,” says the most recent review of the sheep industry published by the Economic Service of the Meat and Wool Boards.

The service publishes a table comparing retail and export prices for mutton and beef. It says the statement is sometimes made that the local price of meat in New Zealand is determined by the export price. The table ‘shows that for most the two-year period from July. 1957, to June, 1929, the retail price of mutton chops in Christchurch was 2s 7d per lb and in that period the, export price of wether up to 481 b varied between lid and Is 44d per lb. In the same period there was no variation at all in the retail price of chops in Dunedin. In Auckland, however, there was a movement which roughly related to export price trends. A similar comparison was also made of the retail price of sirloin beef and the export price of g.a.q. ox. Here again there was no particular correlation between the two prices with the retail price sometimes rising when the export price was falling or was steady. In Christchurch, while the export price dropped from Is to lOd the retail price rose from 2s 6d to 2s 9d. When the export price was Is 4d for a long period, the local retail price varied from 2s lOd to 3s 4d and there was no further movement in the retail price when the export price rose to Is 6d and then dropped to Is 3d.