MARKETING OUTLOOK

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 150, 21 March 1939, Page 6

MARKETING OUTLOOK

Survey By Wairarapa Farmers’ President RESTRICTION ON EXPORTS Dominion Special Service. MASTERTON, March 20. "In an interview in Dunedin Mr. J. Begg, a member of the New Zealand Meat Board, dealing with restricted killing of sheep aud lambs by the British Board, ot Trade, said there would be no restriction for the 1939 season, and we should take care to have our full quota on hand by December 31, 1939, which is definitely set down as the end of the current export season; the succeeding quota year will start from January 1, 1940,” said the president, Mr. H. Morrison, at a meeting ot the Wairarapa provincial executive tithe Farmers’ Union, today "Mr. Begg is emphatic that we shouirt make up our full quota in preparation for the new quota, which is based mainly on the quantity export of the 1939 season. This will probably compel us to kilt more for export before next Christmas in the event of a shortage in sight before that date. It may be necessary in 1940 to restrict killing and this will be serious for New Zealand. Fortunately the Homo Government has allowed us to decide which class o£ meat we will restrict. \\ e can lake it for granted that the restriction we will exercise will be on old ewe mutton and the possible restriction mentioned is 4000 to 5000 tons on a 3 per cent, basis, but there is evidently a danger of more drastic restriction being required. “The question then arises: What are we going to do with a quarter of a million or more ewes left over? The local markets will be oversupplied. One suggestion that has been made is to reopen

the boiling-down works in each province to produce tallow, pelts, fertilizers, casings, tinned meats and suchlike, but can we produce fertilizers and by-product* at an economic price? I confess I do not know, but it is a matter for urgent investigation.

Bartering Suggested.

“Another suggestion is that we form producer pools and barter our surplus as in the case of the Argentine and other South American States with their surplus beef, for which they took goods from Germany, Italy and other countries. I have my doubts of our possibility of success in thi* direction, as the Argentine ami other States are bartering their first-quality beef, which is an entirely different proposition to bartering with our third-class mutton. We are already bartering our butter with Germany, but again with a first-class article. Another factor is the probable lack of refrigeration and cool stores in these other countries, which does not apply so much in the case of Argentine chilled beef. “The British National Farmers’ Union, through the Empire conference at Sydney, suggested that the British Minister ol Agriculture make arrangements to sell the surplus meat such as ours to other countries, but here again the Argentine and South American States are established much ahead of us, and some meat exporters inform me we have no chance whatever of quitting our surplus meats to other countries. “A still further suggestion, which for the North Island is a very good one, is to aim at reducing our sheep and increasing our cattle, with a view to expanding our chilled beef industry. This would result in. au improvement in the quality of lamb and sheep generally on hill country, and would also act as a check on the deterioration of this class of country. “The initial handicaps to this method are first: whether the Empire Beef Council would .permit an increase of dur beef quota ; secondly, have we enough suitable fattening country apart from that occupied by the dairying industry to fatten what could be grown on the hill country? thirdly, other countries, particularly Australia' Canada, South Africa, Rhodesia, aud Kenya, are already clamouring for increased quota* of chilled beef. “The seriousness of this problem to the hill farmer and the breeder of ewes on second and third-class country cannot be over-estimated.” 1