STATE GUARANTEE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 107, 2 November 1942, Page 4

STATE GUARANTEE

MEAT INDUSTRY

EXPORTABLE SURPLUS

To ensure the stability ■of the meat industry, said the Minister of Marketing (Mr. Barclay) on Saturday night, the Government had agreed to renew for this season the guarantee given to producers last season to purchase in respect of their normal output all the exportable surplus after three months in store, irrespective of whether it was finally shipped or not. The Minister also announced that the■'. Marketing Department had established f.o.b. buying prices for all main classes of meat,, the price level being such that meat operators were j able to offer farmers the same opening! schedule for. live stock as operated at the beginning of last year: This had! necessitated an. increase in the Market-] ing Department's prices to compensate! for lower pelt values. The extent of these increases was .175 d a lb for all grades of lamb, and .125 d a lb for all grades of wether mutton. The income of the meat pool would therefore be reduced proportionately. "Details of the agreed opening schedules will be issued in a few days," continued the Minister, "but the central feature of the arrangement is that] (he opening schedules will in the main be the same as for last season. For example, prime Down cross lambs. 231b to 361b weight range, will open at 8 3-8 d a lb, and prices fori other grades will be in conformity. The opening price for North Island prime wethers I 481b and under, will be ■ s&d, while' South Island wethers will retain their relative values. Ewe prices for 641b and under will open at 2 5-8 d a lb. Ox beef of G.A.Q. quality, under 8401b, will open at 34s per hundred, G.A.Q. heifer at 335, and G.A.Q. cow at 27s 6d. The schedule for pork and bacon will remain stationary at last season's levels. "It is not yet possible to announce a firm price for .bull beef and bobby veal as disposal of these classes of meat is still,..under discussion. Prices for boner cow beef will continue at their present levels, but will be subject to review towards the end of the present calendar year. The agreed opening schedules are based on the average values for sliped . wool realised last season. Any addition to last season's value of slipe wool will be reflected to the producer by proportionally increasing the buying schedule. SALE AND SLAUGHTER OF STOCK. "The Fat Stock Disposal Order, 1941, which restricted the sale and slaughter of stock to the same purchaser or killing plant as employed by the farmer the previous season, will be re-enacted, and will become operative in regard to all. transactions during the present season. "Tlie movement in buying prices subsequent to the opening schedules will depend as in the past on skin values, and the movement of prices in any direction will be supervised by the Primary Industries Controller in consultation with representatives of the Meat Board and-meat operators. "Producers will appreciate that the arrangements which I have outlined ensure stability in their farming economy during the forthcoming production year. Farmers may therefore carry on their normal production policy, while meat companies are assured of their normal working margins, and operators may purchase from farmers with the knowledge that the purchase of their meat by the Government is assured. "War conditions impose grave difficulties in the direction of transport and man-power," Mr. Barclay added. "Producers can assist in meeting these difficulties to some extent by ensuring a normal flow of stock to killing works, and in particular all farmers should endeavour to send lambs forward at the earliest possible date to spread the peak load and thus conserve manpower." .