MUTTON AND LAMB

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 12

MUTTON AND LAMB

NARROW TRADE LIMITS

AN OFFICIAL REPORT

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, October 10.

Prepared by the intelligence branch of the Imperial Economic Committee, an official summary of production and trade in mutton and lamb in the Empire and foreign countries has just been published, and states that mutton and lamb occupy an important place in international trade, but one confined within narrow limits—narrower even than beef. The United Kingdom is virtually the sole market for the world's surplus supplies of mutton and lamb, absorbing m 1934 over 96 per cent, of the supplies entering international trade. No less than i) 8 per cent, of this trade came from five mutton and lamb exporting countries in the Southern Hemisphere, the proportion coming from the South American countries having declined each year from 1925. New Zealand has throughout occupied the first place, but Australia is now second. New Zealand products obtain in the United Kingdom a premium over those of other mutton and lamb exporting countries, the report goes on, due to the fact that her sheep conform closely to the popular English mutton breeds, to the strict -grading, and to the reputation held by her mutton and lamb. Another great change in the trade has occurred since 1924. In that year, the share of lamb was approximately that of mutton; by 1934 the lamb trade had doubled in quantity, and formed no less than three-quarters of the total, whereas mutton had declined to about twothirds of its 1924 volume. The change has been caused by the increased demand for lamb in Great Britain. PRICE MOVEMENTS. According to the report, mutton an 4 lamb prices fell steadily after 1920 until 1933, when the movement was reversed. The price fall was accentuated in 1931-32, when wool prices were also very depressed, and late in 1932 shipments of meat to the United Kingdom were restricted by voluntary arrangement to prevent further fall in prices. In January, 1933, began the quantitative regulation of imports of meat from foreign sources into the United Kingdom, as arranged at the Ottawa Conference in August, 1932, and mutton and lamb prices have since somewhat improved. On the whole, mutton and lamb prices have resisted the general post-war fall in prices better than the majority of primary agricultural products, and even commodities in general. The production of mutton and lamb in the principal importing and exporting countries aggregated about 1,642,000 tons in 1934, an increase of 28 per cent, over the 1924 total. In the decade 1924 to 1933, production in Great Britain increased from 210,000 to 310,000 tons; in Australia, from 205,000 to 327,000; in New Zealand, from 179,000 to 220,000 tons; and in the United States from 263,000 to 382,000 tons. Moreover, in each of these countries, with the exception of Great Britain, the 1933 level of production was lower than, in the preceding peak year. In 1934, however, production in Great Britain fell to 262,000 tons, but rose in New Zealand to 250,000 tons. More mutton and lamb is consumed in Great Britain than before the war, or a decade ago. The estimated total supplies consumed increased steadily from 474.000 tons in 1923-24 to a peak of 673,000 tons in 1932-33, but fell by 42,000 tons in the following two years. The pre-war quinquennial average was 562,000 tons. There has also been an upward trend in per capita mutton and lamb consumption in recent years in most of the other countries surveyed, especially in Australia, Argentina, and Chile. The movement has been too erratic in New Zealand for a trend to be observed, but in several European countries it has been definitely downward. FUTURE PROSPECTS. The report points out that as the United Kingdom constitutes, for all practical purposes, the sole outlet for the world's "tyrplus mutton and lamb supplies, he'PO'./licy in regard to her meat impor' .in near future is of the greates^irnP°^Ltance to overseas producers. The inauguration of quantitative regulation of imports in 1933 put an end to her implied unlimited capacity for absorbing the surplus supplies of other countries. At the same time, her imports of mutton and lamb remain not very much below the level of 1931, the peak year, chiefly because of the recent expansion in shipments from Australia. The potential -world production of mutton and lamb is as great as ever, so that, save in the unlikely event of a marked arid immediate development in domestic consumption in the principal mutton and lamb exporting- countries, the pressure of overseas supplies on the United Kingdom market, after 1936, when the existing import arrangements come to an end, will probably continue not very far below the level 'of recent years. Fortunately for overseas, producers, the demand for mutton and lamb has risen considerably in Great Britain in recent years, in part offsetting a decline in the consumption of beef and veal, and the demand for frozen mutton and lamb is likely to continue at a relatively high level. Such an outlet for mutton and lamb should constitute a relatively stabilising factor in the international market for meat. Much ' depends upon the world demand for wool. This demand is closely bound ut> with the general industrial situation and an improvement in that sphere will materially assist sheep rearers.