BACON INDUSTRY

Grey River Argus, 6 August 1937, Page 5

BACON INDUSTRY

DIFFICULTY IN BRITAIN. I British Official Wireless]. RUGBY, July 29. The Minister of Agriculture (Mr W. S. Morrison) said in the House of Commons that the Government had given careful consideration to the difficulties of the bacon industry, which appeared to be attributable In part to the increase of pig-feeding costs and in part to the high costs of bacon manufacture in the United Kingdom. The Government believed that if the industry were founded on a small number of efficient factories provided with adequate and regular supplies of pigs of good quality and conformation, sufficient economies could be secured in the cost of curing to enable the industry to be maintained during the period of high feeding costs. The Government would accordingly be willing to propose that some assistance would be accorded to the industry over a sufficient period to enable the contract system for the supply of bacon pigs to be re-estab-lished. If the Government was assured that reorganisation of bacon factories would proceed so as to hold promise of a reduction in curing costs which would enable both producers and curers to work at a profit, it desired to give further consideration, in consultation with the industry, to the nature of the changes required and the form they should take, with a view to laying detailed proposals before Parliament as soon as possible. In the meanwhile the present arrangements for the regulation of imports would continue.