CLOUDY PROSPECTS

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 49, 26 February 1921, Page 9

CLOUDY PROSPECTS

MEAT EXPORT TRADE

FARMERS' RETURNS REDUCED

The English meat trade, is now full of uncertainty, and returns to Dominion farmers for stock are already reduced. Thera is every chanco of them falling lower. The facts are well known and ' fully apprehended by the pastoralist .'who is now contemplating his position, not without anxiety. This is natural. Wool is down to pre-war, o-r even lower, and tho 60-pound sheep that brought 27s 6d is now saleable at no more (possibly less) than 15s, with every indication of lower 'values. Skins of shorn sheep, worth 10s to 12a 6d last year, are down to Is 3d to 2s; while the tallow market is continually falling. Recent cables snow that combined with increased working eexpensos, higher freights, and the depression in tbe wool, pelt, amdi tallow markets, mutton-raising in- New fear land has reached the non-paying point. A recent cablegram, received' from London, by a large exporting firm, reads as follows,:-t"W» "again advise caution in operation mutton and beef. We do not think Australasian operators realise the position here. Unemployment is increasing, despite Government efforts, and wages will have to decrease. We look for steadily-declining prices between now and autumn, when the level will probably be not much above pre-war. Lamb prices will be affected by large quantities from America now onwards." , LAMB FROM AMERICA. Tbe position might not be so difficult had N«w Zealand lamb a free run in. the British market. To many not conversant with the trade, it may be news that New Zealand holds virtually a monopoly of the fat lamb trade of the United Kingdom. It was regarded) as the second string to the New Zealand' sheepfanner's bow, and a valuable string, too, when set off against lower returns from mutton. It was hoped that the lamb of this season's production would compensate for the not unexpected diminished Teturns from mutton and! wool. But competition has come from an unexpected quarter, viz., from America. The Shaw, Savill liner, Tairoa, with lamb and mutton for New York, was diverted to London, her cargo competing! with New Zealand "free" lamb and mutton. This is not what was contemplabe'd by New Zealand .producers when shipments of Imperial Government New Zealand lamb andl mutton -were made to America. It was confidently believed that the idiea was to relieve congestion! of stores here, in, readiness for the reception of this season'« meat, and aib the same time relieve the English market, and prepare the way for the arrival of the 1920-21 free meat. Insteadi, this meat is now "up against" competition' of New Zealand meat, especially lamb, originally destined for America. The following cablegram, bearing on, this subject, was recently received .. in Wellington from London,:—"We advise steamer arrived from New York with 30,000 lambs; further half million to arrive by middle April; also Argentine mutton and beef cargoes being divertedl from Continent to United Kingdom." DIVERTED SHIPMENTS. Advioe has also been received to the effect that cargoes of New Zealand lamb and mutton landed in New York have been reloaded—the White Star liner Cedrio was named —and taken to England. There it came into competifcKMi with this season's free New, 'Zealand meat. Further, beef loaded in New Zealand for the Continent in the Vestey Blue Star boats has been diverted to Great Britain, also -thus intensifying the competition arid having the effect of bringing drawn returns to the New Zealand producer. Prospects of the British meat market at the moment are far from encouraging, stores there being congested, and difficulty arising out of finance no doubt a<MX>unts for the diversion of Australian, New Zealand, and Argentine meat from Continental ports to Great Britain. The prices at which American shipments of lamb are offered for early deliver} on the London market are Is per pound, c.i.f. Up to the present the c.i.f. price for New Zealand free lamb has been 13d per pound. The America.ni competitions must bring the 1 price well' down, and this will be reflected in tho returns to the Dominion producer. THE BEEF MARKET: Beef is in an identical position. New Zealand beef is not considered to be so fine as that raised in Argentina, and ours will not be able to withstand its competition in the English market, to which it is being diverted from the Continent. The whole New Zealand meat position b at present in a cloudy, uncertain condition. But there is one very definite salient fact—lower returns to producers. Lamb is held to be a, luxury meat, and, that being 60, it is contended for the farmers in New Zealand that its control price should be removed by the British Government. It is recognised that mutton and beef are absolutely necessary, and something could, perhaps, be said for retention of their grice-control; but lamb, which is the New Zealand farmers' stand-by, is in a different category, and is taken only by people who can well afford to pay for it, and among them hotelkeepers and' restaurateurs.

The above is more or less reflective of producers' and freezing companies' views on the present situation.