PIGS FROM DOMINION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 94, 21 March 1939, Page 2

PIGS FROM DOMINION.

MORE EXPORTS URGED

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON. March 20.

The opinion that, .as the United Kingdom market for New Zealand mutton and lamb had to a large extent reached saturation point. the farmers of the Dominion could well turn their attention to the pig industry, was expressed in an interview today bv Air F. C. Mason, manager of the meat department of a Tonley Street (London) firm of produce importers, which has been connected with the New Zealand trade for many years. Mr Ma6on, who is visiting Wellington in the course of a tour of New Zealand, said the purpose of his visit was to obtain an understanding and appreciation of the difficulties of those on the otherside of the world. He had visited both the South Island and the North Island and had met all people prominently connected with the meat trade.

“Quite apart from mutton and lamb I am particularly interested in the possibilities of the pig industry in this country.” said Mr Mason. “At the moment Australia and New Zealand together export to the United Kingdom only about 2 per cent of the bacon imported into Britain, and it seems to me there is a golden opportunity to develop this market, tremendously, and I have no doubt the British Government will lot in from Australia and New Zealand much larger quantities if they are available.”

Mr Mason urged farmers to look on the pig industry as an important and lucrative part of their farming operations and not merely as a side-issue. The Dominion, he said, had built up a wonderful lamb market by shipping the right type of carcase, and. if the pig industry was to flourish, that was an important point to bear in mind. The market in England required a fairly lean pig. though there was. of course, an outlet for the fatter type. Mr Mason said he should not like to suggest what breed should be favoured as it was n controversial subject, but so far as he could see there was nothing to hinder the development of the industry along sound lines in New Zealand.