Rise In Cost Of Lamb Handling

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31448, 15 August 1967, Page 8

Rise In Cost Of Lamb Handling

On a 321 b lamb pulling 21b of wool the producer over the last 10 years, has absorbed factory and shipping costs amounting to 8s 7d (86c) a carcase in Canterbury and 6s 5.4 d (64c) a carcase in the Auckland area, according to the annual report of the Meat Producers’ Board.

“On 20 million lambs the total is quite staggering,” says the report.

In the 10-year period from 1956-67 to 1966-67, the report shows, freezing charges on lamb per lb have increased by 120 per cent in Canterbury and 54 per cent in the Auckland district, the processing charge on lamb pelts per lb for a 321 b lamb by 27 per cent in Canterbury and 11 per cent in Auckland, and for processing slipe wool per lb on a 321 b lamb With a 21b wool pull by 27 per cent in Canterbury and 45 per cent in Auckland.

At the same time shipping freight charges on lamb have increased by 41 per cent. “These are charges that the producer bears indirectly in that they are lost in the fat

stock schedule price structure,” says the report. “This is a comparatively painless method of extraction, so much so that the movement could be very much obscured unless someone brought it to light from time to time. Collectively these increases are quite formidable.” In any other field of endeavour, the board says, with costs rising so drastically prices would have automatically followed, but this was not so where primary products were concerned, and a comparison between lamb prices in 1955 to 1957 and 1965 to 1967 at certain times of the year show that in the latter period they are sometimes lower. “It is unfortunate but true that the destiny of the producer appears to be one of being, squeezed between rising costs on the one hand and oddly fluctuating prices on the other.

“This is not to say that he has not had his moments over the last decade. Nevertheless he is destined to live in a world of uncertainty as he has little control over costs and none over prices. ‘This is a serious position not only for the producer, but also for the national economy. The reason the producer has survived, and to a degree prospered, is through increased production which has kept his income buoyant and helped to level out the rise in costs. Tn this inflationary world, it is difficult to see the various items which total up to the complete costs of production and marketing doing anything other than rise. Increasing production will tend to keep the graph line on a more gentle incline but other action must be, and in fact is being, taken to alleviate the position. Various organisations and committees are working on the problem along the lines of making more efficient use of labour and materials, streamlining and rationalisation. . . . “It is vital that these organisations and committees have the full backing of the Government to carry their, work through to fruition.”