MEAT SHIPMENTS

Grey River Argus, 5 February 1941, Page 9

MEAT SHIPMENTS

MOSTLY NORTH ISLAND. Disproportionate shipments of new season’s frozen meat from the South Island, compared with the outward loadings from the North Island, have become a subject of comment. The North Island shipments of new season's lamb was 10 times a's heavy as that from South Island works up to January 18. The comparative shipments are reported to have been:—North Island, 962,000; South Island, 94,000. With the Government paying only f.o.b. and no arrangemnets having been made so far for earlier payment in view of the expected increased delays in shipment, the freezing companies have to carry the financial burden. The problem, it is understood, was one of the subjects discussed last week between representatives of the companies and the Government. ' . The wide divergence in the quantities shipped from the two islands is not explainable by any earlier beginning of killing in the North Island. With the exception of one or two works, killing did not begin in the North Island much earlier than in Canterbury, where the season was late in opening. Up to January 18, the North Island had killed 2,500,000 lambs and the South Island 1,059,000 lambs.

No ewe or wether mutton has been shipped from the South Island, but so far only 3,000 wethers and 6,000 ewes have been killed. In the North Island, 7,000 of the 45,000 wethers and 3,000 of the 63,000 ewes killed this season, have been sent out of the cool stores.