The N.Z. Co-operative Pig Marketing Association

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7063, 24 January 1933, Page 5

The N.Z. Co-operative Pig Marketing Association

Commenting on the export figures for frozen meat for the first three months of the present season, Mr. Phillips. Chairman of Directors of the New Zealand Co-operative Pig Marketing Association Limited, said that it was gratifying to note that -whilst exports of all other meats had, compared with the same period last year, suffered a substantial drop, the export of pigs had materially increased, the actual increase being over 10,000 carcases. Up to December 31, his company had this season exported on behalf of its suppliers oner 20,000 pigs, and now held in store for shipment within the next three weeks an additional 13,000 carcases. Some idea of the response by farmers in the Auckland province, Hawke ’s Bay, the Manawatu and Taranaki districts to this movement may be judged by .the fact that for the same period last year its exports were less than 5000 carcases. Although the production of pigs has always been a profitable adjunct to dairying, it is only in recent months since the collapso of the butter market that farmers seem to have realised the real value of the pig in supplementing their returns for butterfat, The extent to which these returns may be augmented by the conversion of skim to pigmeat must always very largely depend on management, but under good conditions it lias been amply demonstrated that at ruling export values for pork, it is possible to add from 14d to 2d per pound to butterfat cheques. With butterfat at its present low level the pig is therefore a gentleman to be respected, and it is hoped that out of the present unfortunate situation of the butter market, there will emerge a wider and truer appreciation of the importance of the pig as an inseparable and indispensable corollary to the economic production of the country.