A GREAT BUSINESS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 129, 3 June 1933, Page 14

A GREAT BUSINESS

LONDON'S MEAT SUPPLIES Interesting statistics concerning Lon don's.meat supplies during 1932 are givci by Mr. H. W. G. Millman, clerk ant superintendent of the London Centra Markets, in his annual report. "As fai as the metropolis is concerned," he states "there is one great distributive centre— Smithfiekl—with more than 8,000,000 con siiniers on its doorstep to be fed daily, and mostly on imported meat." Imports into the United Kingdom of beef, mutton, and lamb amounted to 912,820 tons, a decrease of 38,028 tons compared with 1931, of which 33.9 per cent, was distributed through the "London Centra] Markets. Mr. Millman points out that the sup plies of meat produced in Britain and Ireland available for London are only sufficient to provide Londoners with a weekly ration of 3.10z of beef, 3oz of mutton and lamb, and 3.2pz of pork. The Dominions provide weekly l.loz of beef, 3oz of mutton and lamb, and 0.30z of pork; and foreign countries 15.40z, 1.90z, and 0.090z in each case per head. Livestock killed; to maintain the year's supplies approximates 920,000 bullocks and calves, 7,600,000 -''sheep and lambs, and 1,000,000 pigs. No foreign fresh-killed meats were handled, with the exception of some Icelandic beef and mutton. The report goes on to state that' the capacity of the Central Markets has never yet been fully, tested, and although the supplies for 1932 averaged 9171 tons weekly, 07.4 per cent, of the supplies were marketeel .on three days of the week —Mondays averaging 2290 tons, Wednesdays 1841 tons, and Thursdays 1927 tons, together 6058 tons; the remaining 32.6 per cent, being dealt with on Tuesdays,' 1227 tons, and Fridays, 1075 tons, with sundry small odds and ends on Saturdays, when for all practical purposes~the market may be termed closed. ■