High Stock Costs; Many Butcheries On Market

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 14

High Stock Costs; Many Butcheries On Market

More butcher shops were on the market in Christchurch today than ever before because there was so little money in the retail meat trade, a spokesman for a chain of Christchurch retail butcher shops said yesterday/

“We have had some of the butcher shops offered to us,” he said. The spokesman said his company could tell by the returns from some of its own shops that some Christchurch butcher shops “must be really at the bottom of the barrel.” No Christchurch butcher’s shop was today making a big profit out of meat because of the exorbitant prices demanded for livestock. The spokesman said that his company was now selling new season’s sides of fresh mutton fpr £1 7s 6d. A few weeks ago his company’s shops were selling last season’s sides of frozen mutton for 12s 6d each. His company’s frozen mutton meat supply became exhausted about a month earlier this year than last. “Export companies are ex-

porting far more new mutton to Japan, which before was possibly going to the local market,” he said. Prime quality mutton was being sold at £1 7s 6d a side and the 12s 6d sides were frozen export rejects, he said. “Perfectly Good” “The reject export meat is perfectly good, but would not be fit for export for some reason or other. It might be a bit thinner than prime; it could even have been too fat.” The spokesman said that Christchurch butcher’s shops were not adjusting meat prices to make huge profits on the new season’s fresh meat. “The prices we have to pay for lambs is exorbitant,” he said. “We would be losing money on quite a bit of the stuff we are selling at the moment. It is ridiculous what we have got tp pay for livestock at the moment.” He said that if the cost of livestock dropped, his company’s retail meat prices would drop accordingly.