FROZEN MEAT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 20, 20 December 1932, Page 12

FROZEN MEAT

CRISIS IN BRITISH AGRICULTURE LIMITATION OF IMPORTS. In the House of Commons, on November 7, the Minister for Agriculture (Major Elliot) made a most important statement relative to the position of the British primary producer, ijnd to the imposition of a quota on foreign and Dominion meat supplies ■which led to materially increased prices. Major Elliot said that the question which had been facing him ever since he came to the Ministry was how to hold what we had got, how to keep the people on the land, how to secure a market for the production we had already secured. When we had stabilised all these things, then was the time to discuss how and where we should expand. The difficulty would not come from the powers of production in this country, it would come from the difficulty of the power of absorption of this market^—how much could we afford to produce and consume, how much would our market hold.

“These are two things which cannot be pursued independently. How easy to expand production of bacon in this country, to cut down food imports and produce at home. Yes, I can expand production at home—and yet less bacon from Denmark may be less coal for Scandinavia. That is the position the Minister of Mines and the President of the Board of Trade have to review. It is no use finding a man one employment and at the same time putting a nit worker out of employment. 'These things have to be balanced one against the other. “The difficulties we shall find ourselvos faced with are not the difficulties of production, but getting a market for what we have. “If wo can secure remunerative prices there will be no difficulty in getting people upon the land. People will flock upon the land. Capital will flow into the industry. There may be cheap money and cheap land, but unless you can also add remunerative prices for the product it is of no avail. The problem of agriculture is the problem of prices, and to prices we must constantly recur. (Cheers.) Government have stated their policy on agriculture. Step by step that policy has been implemented. It was repeatedly announced by the Minister that the great fundamental question of meat and livestock could not be tackled until it had been reviewed by the Empire as a whole at Ottawa.

POWER TO TAKE FURTHER STEPS. “The inter-imperial position, which has been regulated at Ottawa leaves it within the power of this Parliament to take further steps. There has been no limitation of the sovereign power of Parliament in that respect. (Cheers.) “It seems to me that the present agricultural position is dominated by the livestock position. Mr Lloyd George spoke of the necessity for greatly increasing our small holdings. I was sorry he did not review the position of his own country of Wales—a sheeprearing country. Caernarvon, Anglesey and Pembroke are all notable places. (Laughter.) Anglesey has 158,000 sheep, Pembroke has 166,000 sheep, Caernarvon has 315,000 sheep. A Member: And one goat. (Laugh-* ter.) Mr Elliot: There are often found other animals among our flocks and herds, and they always have the proud position of leaders. (Laughter.) He quoted comparative prices between last year and this—ewes had fallen from 22s to 12s 6d; store lambs from 15s to 10s and 3s 6d; and continued: “How can we go to the man on the Welsh hills and advocate a policy for small-holdings unless we can secure some reasonable remuneration for these ancient industries?’’ Mr Lloyd George: That is due to competition from the Dominions. Major Elliot: Competition from the Dominions is no doubt a very serious thing. The right hon. gentleman should turn some of the attention he has given to Churb to the hills of Wales. (Laughter.) He would be told there that if you can buy beef and bacon at the throwraway prices you can get them at now, it inevitably reduces the price of lambs. The competition of beef and bacon has as much to do with the fall in general meat prices as any other single factor. It cannot be denied that the crisis in livestock is pre-eminently the crisis in agriculture, that the crisis in agriculture is a crisis of price, and that the crisis of price is a crisis of supplies. The prices of livestock have fatten because the market is so glutted with meat that you cannot get a bid for a live animal. The extension of supplies has been very considerable from the Dominions, but not by any means only from that source. We consume some 3,000,000 tons a year, and, although we imported 350,000 tons from Australia' and New Zealand and 637,000 tons from South America, we imported 380,000 tons from Denmark alone. These supplies have increased immensely in recent years, and they have begun to come in from new sources, such as Poland, which has sent us 28,000 tons. These supplies had reached a saturation point. The main fact stressed by the House was that of urgency. The problem had been examined with an open mind by the members of the Cabinet. “If we deal with the situation of over-suply there should be some way to limit the supply from those countries who supply us forthwith. “If we deal with the supplies of mutton and lamb we find that these supplies come from New Zealand and Australia, and they have increased very largely from these two countries. Those who have considered this problem will find that a tariff on mutton and lamb does not solve the problem. Unless we get a considered answer to that question it is impossible to carry the matter further. AGREEMENT SECURED..

“But consultation and agreement are necessary, and it is on that consultation that we have been engaged, and it is that agreement that I think we have secured. (Cheers.) The problem involves restriction of supplies into this country from all sources. South America, Australia, New Zealand, and the Scandinavian countries are all sources of these supplies, and they are countries with which we are desirous also of negotiating trade agreements. We buy from them and we sell to them, and it is urgently necessary, that we should carry these great customers of ours along with us. “Our export trade depends so much on the good will of our customers that unless we can prove to them that they themselves will benefit by what we are about to do we may do greater damage to the trade of this country than secure advantage for it. “Consequently we have had to negotiate with Bouth America and the Baltic countries, and we have had to put it to them on an emergency basis—that here is a crisis which is swamping one of the great markets of the world, Smithfield. I am happy to say that they agreed that that was a correct appreciation of the situation, and I am nappy to say further that they are willing not merely to explor-e but to come to a practical agreement with

us as. to dealing with this emergency situation. (Cheers.) ~ “In the first place we act on the basis that an arrangement meat trade, can be better earned through voluntarily by those en S a S e in the trade than by Government DeP3 “Secondly, we found that we had to discuss the matter first of all with the Dominions and then with the Sout American group. The Preside Board of Trade (Mr Runciman), the Secretary for tho Dominions, and myself 1 discussed the position on two occasions with the importers of meat from the River Plate, and, following a meeting with them this morning under the presidency of the President Board of Trade—l wou d like to stress that—(cheers and laughter)—the j have informed us that they are prepared to put into effect at once a cut of 20 per cent, in the supplies ot mutton and lamb. . ~ “With regard to chilled beef they have explained that it is a physical impossibility to reduce the supples for November and December by as much as 20 per cont. Four weeks’ supplies are already afloat, and cattle for the fifth week are already killed. “To effect a reduction of 10 per oent. also presents great difficulties but it can be done. The importers, therefore, are prepared to reduce supplies ot chilled beef by 10 per cent, immediately, and if in the next two or three weeks sale prioes do not respond adequately the importers will take further drastic steps to reduce marketings. if necessary up to 20 per cent. “That is not enough. We have also had to see the Scandinavian group. In regard to Scandinavia and the position of bacon, we have to-day. seen representatives of some of the importers concerned, including Denmark, Holland, Sweden and Latvia. We are seeing others to-morrow morning. \Y e have explained to them tho situation which has arisen and expressed the hope that tho Governments they represent will see their way to co-operate in the voluntary arrangements which are being mado to deal with the present emergency. “It lias been and will be made clear that owing to the inter-relationship of all kinds of meat, a comparable reduction of bacon imports must be effected at or about the same time as the reductions are made in the imports of other meat.

“I am not in a position to say anything further at the moment in regard to bacon and hams, but I feel sure we shall be able to count on the good will and co-operation of the Governments concerned. The proposal we have put forward to them is a proposal of limitation, which means no less than 20 per cent, limitation coming into effect immediately. DOMINION POSITION.

“The position in regard to the Dominions is naturally one which requires the utmost care in handling, and in that I had the assistance and co-oera-tion of the Dominions Secretary and the President of the Board of Trade, both of whom had the advantage of being at Ottawa. “We conferred with representatives of the Australian and New .Zealand Governments, and discussed with them the present deplorable situation of meat prices, md its effect on the livestock industry at home and in the Empire. Prices which were breaking England were breaking Australia, and prices which were breaking Australia were breaking New Zealand. “We communicated to them this afternoon the proposals of the South American meat trade and they have intimated that Australia and New Zealand would be desirous of co-operating with the Government of tho United Kingdom in bringing about an unproved price situation forthwith. “They are communicating immediately with their Governments, and.wo have reason to believe that a reduction in shipments of frozen mutton and lamb of 10 per cent, in the ensuing two months as compared with the corresponding period of 1931 will be obtained . “This is a situation it seems to me, brings into an entirely new light the crisis which the British livestock industry is facing to-day.

“These arrangements aro to run over November and December. These arrangements are naturally tentative and provisional. They will require to be examined and will be examined by a standing committee which will keep in touch with the situation from week to week. Even the important question of release from cold store will be examined both by the South American importers and by Australian and New Zealand importers.

“A further review which we hope to give in the course of the World Meat Conference which will be sitting next year, will have something positive and concrete to build upon. It will have the situation in which we have been able to establish an attempt to deal with this crash in commodity prices. It will have a situation in which we have done our best and where I think we shall have succeeded in getting control of one of the markets of the world and putting a bottom into that market.

“The long-term policy of the Government as expressed in the Ottawa agreements will, as we believe, be of tho utmost benefit to British agriculture as a whole, but that long-term policy will topple unless it gets a firm substratum upon which we can erect. That substratum we believe we have secured in the negotiations first of all commenced at Ottawa, and carried, I think, to a successful conclusion in the discussions which have only concluded this evening. You asked for action. Here it is.”