FROZEN MEAT

Grey River Argus, 6 February 1941, Page 7

FROZEN MEAT

Early Statement ON NEGOTIATIONS WITH BRITAIN. CHRISTCHURCH, February 5. A statement on the frozen meat situation will be made before the end of this week by the Government. That was the only information which the Minister for Marketing (the Hon. J. G. Barclay) was able to release when he was questioned yesterday. The Minister was one of the Government's representatives at a conference with the freezing companies at Wellington last Wednesday. Every phase of financing necessary because of the holding back in New Zealand of meat supplies for Great Britain was discussed, but the Government's decisions were withheld pending the return to Wellington of the Minister for Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) who until recently conducted all the negotiations with Britain. Those negotiations are reported to be continuing. Announcing that the Government s attitude would be explained this week, Mr. Barclay added that the Government was still advising farmers to keep production to the maximum. AUSTRALIAN DOUBTS. SYDNEY, January 29. Australia has a contract to send 249,000 tons of beef, mutton and ba'coner carcasses to the United Kingdom before the end of September, but newly-imposed restrictions placed on the export of meat, because of a shortage of insulated shipping, have left the industry with an uncertain future. The industry was primed to fulfil the order, but will now be thrown out of gear. A heavy surplus, probably beyond the present capacity of refrigeration in Australia seems unavoidable. The prospect would be blacker but for the responsibility of Australia to feed the huge British armies in the Middle East to which shipping difficulties are not so great, and the fact that the contract with the British Government provides for payments on account in cases of delayed shipments.

In announcing the restrictions the Australian Minister of Commerce, Sir Earle Page, said that -they would apply mainly to second and third grade meat, which might be used for canning, thus expanding that industry and permitting delivery in concentrated form. ■ Surplus of mutton, he said, would be largely absorbed by the Australian market.

The same optimism was not shared by a meat industry expert, Mr. J. B. Cramsie, a former chairman of the Australian Meat Board, who accused Sir Earle Page of trying to soften the blow and with having failed to lay all the cards on the table. “Sir Earle Page steered away from any mention of the comparatively high cost of canning, as against freezing,” he said, “and he makes no reference to the fact that the only types of meat suitable for canning are the ‘unpopular’ cuts. For every pound of meat you get into a can, you require three pounds of meat for processing. If Australian canners 'have to pay similar prices for material to those laid down in the Imperial meat contract and the cost of treatment and canning, how can countries in the canned meat market? “Last year the value of all export-

able .meat from Australia, frozen and chilled, was £12,209,061. Following a close study of the new restriction plans, I estimate that we will have to face a loss of at least one-third.”

Mr. Cramsie added that it was useless to say that the restrictions were not going seriously to affect the meat industry. Meat not exported would flood the local market—especially during such a good season as 1941 promises—and a collapse might occur. Any reduction in exports was a potential danger to the local grower. Commonwealth authorities agreed with Mr. Cramsie that the restriction will result in a meat glut before long in Australia. They are, therefore, reluctant to stabilise prices, because it would he better in the consumers’ interest, to wait until tlie position is clearer.

An opposite view, however, was expressed by the secretary of the Master Butchers’ Association, Mr. T. A. Herbert. He suggested that the system of supply between grower and consumer was too costly, and that an inquiry should be held into the price of meat. He pointed out that the chain of meat supply started with the grazier, who sold his herds to a cattle dealer, who perhaps traded with another dealer. The dealer sold to a wholesaler, who sometimes passed the meat to a second wholesaler. B.v the time the meat reached the retailer, he passed it over the counterloaded with the profits made at each bargain.

As an economic paradox, housewives are paying up to 3s a lb. for rump steak and Is 6d a lb. for short loin chops. They may suspect “punting up the market" and forestalling, but until prices are stabilised at a reasonable level they must pay or do without.