Meat price fears discounted

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33494, 27 March 1974, Page 11

Meat price fears discounted

In a reply to a letter from a correspondent to “The Press,” a spokesman of the Meat Board said that the fall in beef prices mentioned by the correspondent was not nearly as serious as he claimed.

The spokesman said the class of beef for which prices were quoted in the opening export schedule on October 1, 1973, was manufacturing grade cowbeef most of which was sold to the United States to be made into hamburger and sausage. This was not the type of table beef usually eaten in New Zealand.

“To get local and export prices for beef into their proper perspective, you need to compare price trends fbr prime grades of export beef from which are obtained table roasts and steak cuts. The first export schedule price for this class of beef was announced in midNovember when chiller grade steer beef was quoted at 80c a kilo. This has now fallen to 66c a kilo, a drop of 14c, only half the figure cited by the correspondent,” he said. He said that because most of the prime beef New Zealand produces was eaten by New Zealanders themselves and comparitively little of it was exported, the export schedule did not determine local market prices for this

class of beef but only set a floor for them.

“In fact, for most of the year, domestic prices for prime beef are generally higher, especially during the winter-early spring period, than exporters are able to offer.

“Domestic beef prices are determined by supply and demand on the local market and not by overseas prices,” he said.

The correspondent said it was “sobering to note the continuing fall” in beef prices since the opening of the schedule on October 1, 1973. He said that today’s prices were 20c to 28c lower than the schedule.