ARGENTINE MEAT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 12

ARGENTINE MEAT

ITS CHIEF COMPETITORS

THE QUESTION OF QUOTAS

Sir James Caird, chairman, presided over the 31st ordinary general meeting of the Smithfield and Argentine Meat Company, held in London on March 29. In reviewing the Argentine meat trade; position, the chairman said that the lfiost important occurrence in connection with the meat trade since they had last met was. the fixing at the Ottawa Conference of quotas for produce imported into the United Kingdom, and gave details of the regulations affecting Argentina. The relations between the British Government and the meat companies connected with the Argentine were most friendly, ami tlie com-panie.-i had done, and, he was sine, would do, everything they reasonably could do to ensure the satisfactory working of' the quota .system. As an instance of the difficulty of fixing qu a particular year which would be a fair all-round basis for a quota he instanced the Australian and New Zealand mutton and lamb shipments for three years ending June ' 30, 1030, 1031, and 1032, which were as follows:—1930, 101,000 tons; 1031, 20,058 tons; 1932, 2C9,t87 tons. - "It is now a well-known; fact," he said, "that this, enormous additional quantity of 60,000. tons of mutton and lamb shipped from Australia and New Zealand was the cause of the serious depreciation in our mutton and lamb'prices last year. , "There' is a question that arises' in our tnindS: Is our own mutton and lamb market t<l be flooded with supplies of mutton and lamb from Australia and New .Zealand under a quota based on. a year of abnormal shipments? \ . - DECREABED EXPORTS. "In 1932 the total exports of beef, mutton, and lamb "from the River Plate into the United Kingdom were 507;117 tons, against 556,779 tons in 1931.' ' "The total imports of beef, mutton, ami lamb-from all countries into the United Kingdom. for 1932 amounted . to SU2,B2U tons,' a tdecrease of 37,488 tons compared with 1931. - Shipments from the-. River Plate were 49,662 tons less than last year." The balance-sheet of the. Argentine Meat Company, said the chairman', showed* that the company had earned only a reasonable profit. "The real fact is," Sir J. Caird continued, "that we are all suffering ' from the world-wide depression anil commodity prices in > Argentina have followed the present world-wide trend. What has been lost, sight of is that this drop in cattle prices has been off-set by the reduced value of the by-products resulting from the slaughter of the animals. . For instance, to mention only the two principal by-products of the steer —the hide and the fats. During the last five years the price of hides had fallen about 73 per cent, and fats about 58 per cent. These/ falls in values alone amounted to well over £3 per steer. The fall in the price of canned meat over tho.same period was no less than 47% per cent." The chairman added that he ton Id sympathise with the producers as we were fellow sufferers in the world depression. If after what he had said the Argentine Estancierof still considered they were getting too much profit at this end, then he suggested they should' come and join the Smith'field and Argentine, thereby absolutely assuring themselves of the best of both worlds. He was sure many of the ordinary shareholders would be only too glad to supply parcels of shares at a shilling or two under par. THE OUTLOOK. As regards future prospects, the chairman remarked that provided there were no undue occurrences either here or in Argentina, and that the mission solves satisfactorily the exchange difficulties they were at present labouring under, he saw no reason why their company should not continue to make a reasonable profit—not a large one—for 1933. :' He based his view—quota or. no quota— on what he thought was a fact—that there was a certain portion of the publio here which asked for ,a regular supply of good Argentina chilled beef as long as it could be obtained at a regular moderate price. Raise that price to any extent and they lost a portion of that public. If you could lower your price you could to a moderate extent enlarge the number of your customers, but steady prices were what they aimed at in the interests both of the Argentine Estancieroß and themselves. Improvement in general trade conditions here would be the company's best friend, us it would mean a larger public to whom they could sell their products.