FROZEN PORK

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 107, 2 November 1933, Page 14

FROZEN PORK

HOME MARKET PROSPECTS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, September 28. Shippers of frozen porkers and baconers from the Dominion to the United Kingdom market will doubtless nnd encouragement in the fact, that the past tew weeks have seen an un-looked-for interest on the part of the retail trade in their arrivals. Hitherto, the average pork butcher hag been inclined to look askance upon frozen pork, holding to the belief that freezing had an adverse effect upon the flavour and cutting qualities of the carcasses, while curers persisted in the misapprehension that it was difficult to get frozen baconers to take the cure. . Since the coming into operation 01 the pigs and bacon reorganisation schemes, ,the latter contention has been somewhat overthrown by the Bacon Board's advocacy of "Wiltshire" or tank-curing methods, as against the dry cure which was almost the standard system in vogue among Eng-, lish bacon curers until the schemes came under consideration. With Danish supplies considerably restricted, the board was aware that efforts would have to be made to popularise Danish tank-curing methods if the public demand for "Wiltshire" sides was to be satisfied. Kecent research has shown that frozen baconers take the tank-cure quite readily, provided de-frost-ing is not hurried. Thus, with a scarcity of good grade English baconers, the curers are resorting to frozen carcasses from Australia and New Zealand. On the pork side, the. position is even more acute and, unable to buy sufficient young English porkers, owing to their being held back by the producers in the hope of their fetching at least the minimum of 12s per score as baconers, the pork butchers are buying frozen pigs in bigger quantities than heretofore. Towards the end of September and the beginning of October, it is usually the custom for the pork butchers to buy as' many legs of pork as their cold rooms will accommodate, to hold for December, when prices are usually much higher. Just now, however, the normal supplies of home-killed . pork are not forthcoming, so retailers are buying in stocks of frozen pork. In the opinion of one of London's largest pork butchers, frozen pork can be handled better than the home-kiried, while butchers who have touched this commodity for the first time during the past week or two, for storage until the "peak" season is reached, are by no means anxious to revert to home-killed pork of doubtful finish. • Dominion shippers need to keep a sharp eye upon the grade and condition of the pork they send to the United Kingdom, for the present moment offers them an opportunity to make or mar for all time the prospects of placing New Zealand pork on a par in this country with New Zealand lamb, so far as quality and the public health are concerned, at any rate. With the commencement of the rabbit and pork season, Dominion feeders should reap some benefit from the shortage of prime English pork.