MARKETING PRIMARY PRODUCE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 1979, 22 November 1921, Page 5

MARKETING PRIMARY PRODUCE.

MR R. S. ABRAHAM'S VIEWS. At last night's annual meeting of the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce, Mr R. S. Abraham made some interesting remarks concerning the marketing of our primary produce at Home. He Was gratified at hearing Sir Thomas McKenzie's able views on the subject and agreed with Sir Thomas that there was no question that our produce suffered many abuses as regards marketing at Home. He was glad the suggestion had been made to send a man Home to look after the producers' Interest. That man should be given every assistance, by having our meat graded. If the grading could be done on the same lines as the butter it would make all the difference. If we could have our meat sent Home with" a first or second class certificate the buyer would know just exactly what he was getting. This would assist the expert considerably. Another important matter was to maintain the quality of our meat. We had not been too careful of late in the matter of getting the meat up. There was no question that our meat was ffer ahead of that of any other country in quality. New Zealand's expert at Home could give careful attention to receiving and distributing of the meat. When at Home Mr Abraham had noticed that a lot of the meat was handled very badly, and it was no wonder the people were getting "up against it." Mr Abraham thought someone should also be sent to America in the interest of our meat, butter and cheese. The trouble was that the Americans would not accept our grading certificates and they would not bother going to the trouble entailed in testing. However, if we had a good man there he might be able to get the difficulty smoothed out. Mr Abraham moved that, in thu opinion of this council, the grading of meat should be established on the same lines as butter. Mr J. A. McLeavey said the Chamber would receive the thanks of the farmers if they could do anything that would result in getting our produce on the Home markets in a better condition. Unless we could encourage our waterside workers to handle the meat in a more careful manner the country was going to lose by It. Grading was alright, but without careful handling It would not be of the value it should. The resolution, which is to be passed on to the Producers' Committee, was carried unanimously.