OUTLET FOR PRODUCE

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1015, 3 January 1911, Page 8

OUTLET FOR PRODUCE

NEW SYSTEM SUGGESTED. : ■ ■ An'. Australian president who has just returned Irom a visit to England,, says (Reports, tlip "Sydney Morning Herald'') that , lie is more' than ever convinced that tho best hope for the better distribution in the British markets of the produce from this end of tho world is the cultivation of direct trado with the outsorts which arc near the consumers in the great manufacturing centres. The gentleman in Question .(Mr. Becliervaise) says that the London shipping dock dues are much higher than tho dues at provincial ports, and storing and handling charges are also upon ft higher scale. In regard to the wool trade, Mr. Becliervaise directs attention to Hull as one of tho outports, which is the natural arid cheapest port of entry for tho woollen district of Yorkshire, ■■ and the area it serves extends from Leicester to tho Tyne. Australia, ho says, has hitherto rather neglcctcd this arcaV the 1 bulk of the produce being sent to Londoii, and distributed from there, by rail and coastal steamers. This is a most expensive and cumbersome method of distribution. Frozen meat, for instance, , is discharged overside ex steamers at London into lighters, which convey it to the cold stores,' and if .it is afterwards sold to buyers in northern towns the railway companies collect it by van, cart it to their - stations, '.and, loa'd lit.'into refrigerated wagons for tho town to which it is consigned., The average rail rate from London to the north is not less than 255. per tori, and, apart from. the excessive cost of this method of distribution, the meat must suffer by reason of the many handlings <to which it is subjected, i.e., overside- to lighter; lighter'to cold store, cold-store to railway vans, railway vans to railway trucks, railway trucks to r.'iilvans, and destination. This represents sis handlings before it reaches tho public.' In Hull the cold stores are alongside the dock nuay, and steamers discharge the meat direct from their, holds into tho store." Railway lines run alongside the stores oil. .both sides, and ..the meat can be afterwards dispatched direct from the stores in refrigerated trucks without cartage. In addition to this the charges for handling): . storing,- etc., ate 25 per cent_ less than the London'charges.

There is, Mr. Becliervaise says, a splendid market in Hull for apples, which are dealt with on practically tho same lines as meat. The cost of getting apnlW to Covent Garden market from Tilbury Docks is about 20s.- per ton, and if these are afterwards sent to Yorkshire towns there is the additional rail freight of. at least 255. per ton. The fruit sales at Hull arc'held twice a week, and the attendance cf buyers is larger than at any other fruit auctions in the north. The charges .at Hull for. collecting apples rx steamer, cataloguing, selling, mid delivering to railway 'are about 4!<l. per case. :nnd if.cnual prices .to London , are realised tho net return to growers would be appreciably .better. '