Russians wait for lower mutton price

Press, 8 May 1978, Page 34

Russians wait for lower mutton price

NZPA London Soviet Union meat buyers — New Zealand's best customers for mutton — are playing a waiting game while world prices fall, according to meat industry sources in London.

The Russians are holding back from the customary purchases of meat on the world market; and one of the results was this week’s decision by the New Zealand Meat Board to buy in and support the mutton market. The schedule for mutton is at its minimum, and parti of the blame was put on the! inactivity of the Russians and the Japanese in the trade.

A report from Moscow last week said that part of the reason for the Russians’ reluctance to buy was apparently an effort to reduce a trade deficit with the West.

But the industry sources! in London point out that the: Soviet Union is well-known j as a commodity buyer which moves in when the price ap-i proaches rock-bottom. “At the moment, they sjem to be waiting until the! pace falls further,” one! s; urce said.

The world market for both mutton and beef, which New Zealand has supplied to the Soviet Union in significant amounts in recent years, is described as “difficult,” es- ! pecially outside Japan and [the United States, both of which maintain quantitative restrictions on imports.

"There has been pressure on prices in recent weeks,” the source said. "The Russians are reluctant to buy when the market is unsure and they will probably wait until it bottoms out.” One New Zealand exporter, Amalgamated Marketing, is understood to have had a representative in Moscow recently in an effort to persuade the Russians to buy.

But so far the answer has been “nyet,” despite reports I from Moscow that there are 1 apparently widespread meat i shortages in Soviet shops. 'The reports said that only \ three cities, Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad, were being ■ provided with red meat in [any quantity. Other areas I were falling back on alterna[tive supplies of rabbit meat land poultry. If there are in fact short-

ages in Russia, the New

Zealand Meat Board’s London office does not see a fall-off in production as the reason.

Mr G. Harrison, the board’s research economist, said the board had indications that Soviet production was increasing. He quoted one Soviet expert in the industry as saying that beef and veal production was up on last year, and pigmeat production expected to increase by 8 per cent. In any case, because of the vastness of the Soviet market, Russia could import up to 200,000 tonnes of meat in a year without it having any great effect on homekilled supplies. Through the 19705, New Zealand, along with Australia and the Argentine, has been a regular supplier to the Russian market. In 1970, New Zealand sold Russia 16,684 tonnes of carcase mutton and 6346 tonnes of beef. Last year, 44,951 tonnes of mutton and 36,257; of beef went to the Soviet Union, making it New Zealand’s biggest market for mutton and the secondbiggest (after the United States) for beef.