Call For Close Look At Lamb Market

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31755, 12 August 1968, Page 1

Call For Close Look At Lamb Market

New Zealand needed to look closely at the nature of the demand for its lamb on the United Kingdom market, an eminent New Zealander in agriculture in Britain, Professor M. M. Cooper, dean of the faculty of agriculture at the University of Newcastle, said before he left Christchurch at the week-end after a short visit to Canterbury.

Professor Cooper, who was speaking to a meeting at Ashburton, said he wondered whether people in New Zealand fully appreciated this.

Studies made under the auspices of the National Economic Development Council in Britain, of likely trends in meat consumption in Britain by 1972, showed that sheep meat consumption, mainly of lamb, was forecast to fall from 450,000 tons to 410,000 tons, a decline of about 10 per cent. The use of poultry meats was predicted to rise from 450,000 tons to 600,000 tons. Broiler Growth The growth in broiler chicken production, Professor Cooper said, was one of the most alarming developments for New Zealand meat producers. From practically nothing in 1955, it had grown to some 300,000 tons of meat without any guaranteed price support but through sheer efficiency. The selection of high performing stock had made an enormous contribution.

The growth of this industry had also been accompanied by a new form of marketing with the chicken going straight from the farm to the processor.

The cheapest form of Sunday joint in Britain was now this broiler chicken. Although they might not like its flavour so well, consumers could not be blamed for turning to chicken when it coqld be bought for 10s 6d, compared with 18s 6d to 22s for a leg of lamb from which there would be fat left over. Small Joints

I New Zealand producers, said Professor Cooper, were convinced that the small joint was wanted on the British market. From his experience, he doubted whether there was any but the smallest premium for light-weight carcases, although New Zealand was no longer selling "mountains of tallow.”

However, a man closely associated with the meat industry, who was among those listening to Professor Cooper, said the fact remained that New Zealand light-weight lamb did earn a premium in Britain. Professor Cooper said he did not want to say that the Meat Board was letting producers down, but there was a tremendous need to look at the structure of the market and demand in Britain so as to be absolutely satisfied that they were producing the sort of article that was needed and was potentially desirable. Beef Industry

In the development of New Zealand’s beef industry, it was very important to look into market requirements. It was essential that New Zealand should have a most efficient beef industry. Professor Cooper was strongly critical of the traditional concepts of beef cattle developed in Scotland. The great dividend of cattle performance recording had been to show how wrong these concepts had been.

He was fairly certain that the British ban on Argentine beef imports would not have been lifted earlier in the year had there been an alternative supply from countries free of foot-and-mouth disease.

In Britain, beef cow numbers were expected to rise from 1.2 m to 1.5 m by 1972, and by that time it was forecast that an extra 50,000 tons of beef would be consumed a year.

Beef, he said, was a prestige product that people liked so long as it was available at a reasonable price. U.K. Decline

Although the consumption of sheep meats was expected to fall in Britain, he thought that lamb production would decline there, too. Every year friends of his in the Borders and Northumberland regions were going out of fat lamb production as their shepherds left their employ. Answering a question, Professor Cooper said he did not

believe that Britain could become self-sufficient in food production unless there was a sharp fall in the level of food consumption that people had become accustomed to. Although the traditional butcher's shop was not disappearing from the British scene as quickly as had been expected, the average housewife was looking for more oven-ready commodities. The young housewife was not so able to select her meat requirements in the butcher’s shop as were older housewives and the big emphasis was on convenience foods.

Professor Cooper said he believed that there was a big latent demand for lamb on the Continent. In most Roman Catholic countries, he said, lamb was eaten at Easter. In Italy, if lamb could be obtained it sold for 15s per lb. This was young lamb with hardly a vestige of fat on it.