PIG AND POULTRY EXPORT TRADES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 221, 14 August 1930, Page 5

PIG AND POULTRY EXPORT TRADES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I am no believer in anonymous letters; a man who is afraid to sign his name to a letter criticising another man’s work is not worth taking any notice of, but this matter is one of great public interest so I will depart from my usual practice and answer the questions put by “Fact,” an obvious misnomer, in a recent issue of the “Standard.” With regard to the value of tho export trade in pig and poultry products once it was properly established, I desire to state that in 1927 the United Kingdom imported pig products to tho value of £56,351,758. Of this Denmark received £23,923,094 and New Zealand £333,381. “Fact” must admit that there is room for expansion in New Zealand trade there. In 1927 the United Kingdom imported in poultry products £22,232,158 and of this New Zealand received about £llO4. There is obviously also room for expansion in New Zealand trade. Of the poultry products imported into the United Kingdom in 1927 “eggs in shell” represented £19,252,574. As Denmark is our great rival for dairy produce so she will be our principal competitor for pig and poultry products. So we may well enquire into tho reasons that enable that small country to win the huge sum of £28,500,000 from England in pig and poultry products in one year. I will, quote from the official report of the Unemployment Committee as an authority that even the sceptical and critical mind of “Fact” must accept as reliable. That report says:—“Denmark has an area of 16,750 square miles, which is less than 0110-sixth of the area of New Zealand. Upon this area she supports a population of three and adialf millions, chiefly on a farming basis. Four-fifths of her exports consist of farm produce. Denmark’s chief exports in 1927 were— Butter, cheese, milk and cream, £25,800,000; meats (almost entirely pork and bacon, but including a very small quantity of beef, mutton and lamb), £24,373,000; living animals, chiefly cattle, £5,101,000; eggs, £4,825,000. For the sake of comparison, New Zealand’s exports of similar lines are given for the same year:—Dairy produce, £16,985,508; meats (chiefly lamb and mutton), £9,341,378; living animals, £123,564; eggs and poultry, £llO4. All grains and fodders enter Denmark duty-free. Without these imported grains for stock, Denmark’s bacon, pork, live-stock and egg exports would not be possible, and her dairy produce exports would lie largely reduced. New Zealand has a tariff on stock foods as follow's:—Animal foods of all kinds (includes blood-flour, cocoanut-meal, copra cake, linseed meal, crushed linseed), British preferential tariff, 20 per cent.; general tariff, 40 per cent.; Australian tariff agreement, 20 per cent. Grain and pulse (unground and unmanufactured) —(al Maize 2s cental ; 2s; 2s; (b) wheat, where current domestic value at port of export is 5s 6d per bushel, duty shall be Is 3d per bushel; (a) where current domestic value exceeds 5s 6d, duty is decreased by id for every id of such excess; (b) where current domestic value is less than 5s 6d, duty is increased by icl for every id by which such current domestic value is less than 5s Gd; (c) n.e.i., 2s, 2s, Is 6d. Barley, —, —, 2s cental. . Grain and pulse (ground and manufactured) — (a) Barley, flour prepared, 2s 6d cental, 2s 6d, 2s 6d; (c) maize, flaked, ss, 7s, ss; (d) maize, ground or crushed, free, Id lb, free; (f) oats or oats mixed with, other grains, id lb, 3d. lb, id lb; (h) peas, split, id lb, id lb, id lb; (j) n.e.i., 2s 6d cental, 2s 6d, 2s 6d. Prohibited or restricted imports.—Oats, barley, maize (including maize ground or crushed, but not otherwise manufactured), hay, straw',

and chaff from Australia except with consent of Minister of Agriculture).” I understand that recently the Government has made concessions in regard to tho duty on barley which, while a move in the right direction, will have no effect insofar as enabling the export trade in these products to be established. It must bo obvious even to “Fact” that New Zealand farmers cannot compete with Danish farmers in the supply'of tho English market under the existing circumstances. With regard to my quotation of the price at which maizo can be imported into New Zealand from South American ports, I desire to state that my calculations were based on the market quotations in a recent copy of the London Grain and Seed Reporter and I was supported by tho head of the largest stock and station agency business in New Zealand. Since that quote was made I have been informed by the same gentleman that maize could now bo landed in New Zealand for about 2s 9d per bushel, that is provided the Customs duties were removed so that it could be imported in cargo loads. lam not concerned with “Fact’s” conundrums about Danish cheese imported into New Zealand, but I am concerned that two groat export trndos that would, if established, bring prosperity to New Zealand should be hampered and indeed absolutely prevented from starting because of Customs duties that exist on the foodstuffs required to enable New Zealand farmers to cqmpete with their foreign rivals on the London market. If “Fact” wants any more information he will require to sign his own name or ho will not get it from me.— I am, etc., EDWARD NEWMAN. Dunsinane, Marton. lltli August, 1930.