Record World Meat Exports Last Year

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32166, 9 December 1969, Page 9

Record World Meat Exports Last Year

•fN.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WASHINGTON. Latest world export figures show that the consumer demand for red meat has no national boundaries among countries able to afford it, but some authorities say the trend cannot continue forever. Last year a record 10,500 m lb of meat—mainly from cattle, sheep and pigs—was exported by major producing countries, a gain of 4 per cent from 1967 and about 2m lb more than the 1961-65 average.

The United States Agriculture Department says in a new report that higher beef prices in the United States were largely responsible for the export surge. Last year United States meat imports totalled 2100 m lb compared with 1900 m lb in 1967.

But American hunger for more meat has not been the whole story. Consumption a head in two-thirds of the 39 countries surveyed has risen above the average of four years ago. The department’s new yearbook says that by the year 2000 Americans will be eating 1921 b of meat each a year. The estimate may be conservative since last year United States consumption was 1831 b a head, compared with 1421 b only 20 years earlier.

Americans last year were fifth behind New Zealand (2241 b Argentina (2201 b Uruguay (2181 b and Australia (2041 b The United Kingdom is the largest red meat importer last year taking 3330 m lb, followed by the United States. Beef and veal account for about half the anual meat export volume. The United States not only is the largest producer but continues to be the biggest importer. Affluence Factor

The statistics tend to support arguments that as countries become more affluent their people eat more meat, either from local production or imports. Mr E. J. Warwick, assistant director of the Agriculture Department’s animal

husbandry division, says potentials for future United States beef exports are highly speculative and depend much on whether the cattle industry can expand its efficiency. Based on the latest projection, United States beef and veal consumption a head by the year 2000 will be about 1241 b, compared with round 1131 b last year. Increase Forecast According to Mr Warwick’s figures, United States cattlemen will have to produce 33,800 m lb of carcase weight beef a year by 2000 or about half again as much as they now turn out. In addition, Mr Warwick says, imports 30 years from now will be about 3300 m lb, another 50 per cent i increase. Agriculture Department experts seem optimistic about the capabilities of American farmers to meet future food , demands. The 1969 yearbook says, for example, that by the year 2000 farm' produc-

tion will be twice what it was in the mid-19605. “This will be accomplished with round half the work force, somewhat more land, and possibly two to three times the volume of non-farm resources that were used in the mid-sixties,” the yearbook says. Some Pessimism But some authorities take exception to the rosy outlook, the latest damper being provided by a United States national research council re-

port titled “Resources and Man.”

The authors warn mainly of depleting natural resources to meet the needs of mushrooming world population.

As for food the report says, the carrying capacity of the world is about 30,000 m people, a level which could be reached by the year 2070. This would be “at a level of chronic near-starvation for the great majority” of earth’s people. “The popular belief that the oceans contain inexhaus. ible mineral wealth and that aquatic food products will provide a long-range solution to the nutrition problem is also open to serious question,” the authors say. The only solution, they say, is better resources management, and population control.