PIG MARKETING

Grey River Argus, 5 April 1943, Page 1

PIG MARKETING

NORTH ISLAND REGULATIONS WELLINGTON. April 2. During the last 12 months operations in' the pig industry and particularly those associated with ths purchase of both porkers and baconers in the saleyards have shown inincreasing instability and it has become necessary to intioduce a procedure to ensure that both the price paid to the producers for pigs and the price to consumers for pig meat should be stabilised within the framework of the Stabilisation Emergency Regulations. The Minister of Marketing (Mr Barclay) and his departmental officers have had a number of conferences with all sections of the industry and as a result of these conferences a final procedure has been determined which, it is considered, can be operated successfully with a minimum of disturbance of existing trade channels. This procedure is embodied in the Pig' Marketing Emergency Regulations, 1943, gazetted to-night, which apply only in the North Island. -The regulations- provide that producers can in future sell porkers and baconers either by auction or by private treaty, but if by the latter it must be on the basis of actual dressed weights after killing. The regulations define the maximum prices payable for porkers and baconers. . These prices have been determined as approximating as closely as possible to average prices received by the producers in the North Island for the year ended December 15, 1942. These prices are, in effect, guaranteed to the producer by the Export Marketing Division’s purchase of fresh or frozen pig meats at prices directly related to the fixed schedule prices payable to producers for livestock. The regulations require that records shall be kept of all sales and purchases by auctioneering companies, meat operators, freezing works and abattoirs. Power is also given to the Export. Division of the Marketing Department io purchase at defined prices all or- any porker or baconer pigs slaughtered for human consumption, with the exception of pigs killed at rural abattoirs. It is impossible on the estimated killing of pigs this year to meet fully the requirements of the local market and American contracts for bacon pork placed with manufacturers in New Zealand. It is therefore considered essential that, some central organisation should have the necessary authority to ensure that the available supply is rationed both to thp local market and for American requirements on whatever basis the Government determines. It is for this reason that the Export Marketing Division is empowered to purchase pig meats.