OUR MEAT TRADE.

Northern Advocate, 20 October 1920, Page 3

OUR MEAT TRADE.

A DAMAGED REPUTATION

HOW TO REPAIR IT

An important statement regarding th e sale of New Zealand meat in Britain and the disposal of the aenumulated stocks of old moat was made to a "Dominion"" reporter by Mr. H. S. Fitter, of the well-known distributing firm of Messrs. Henry S. Fitter and Sons. This gentleman, now on a visit to New Zealand, has had very wide experience in the handling of frozen meat on the British market. He suggests that it is not in the interests of New Zealand's meat trade that sales of lamb or of any of the newer meat should be made in other markets while the distributors in Britain are still struggling to dispose of stale meat. He .states that the reputation of he Dominion's meat has suffered considerably in Britain ■ already tiie beginning of th e war, and that plentiful exports of lamb to the United Kingdom offor the best means of restoring the position.

•' New Zealand built up its frozen meat trade and got the reputation of shipping the finest quality meat to the London market principally through the excellent quality of the lamb sent from this country," said Mr. Fitter. " The lamb provided the foundation of New Zealand's reputation among importers and consumers of meat. The mutton that came over was appreciated, but on occasions'some of the sheep did not give all the satisfaction that w e should have liked. Th e lamb, however, from the very first greatest satisfaction. BEST PICKED OUT. " When th e meat was commandeered by the British Government aft<r the outbreak of the war, a large quantity of the wether mutton was taken for the use of the army. The lamb went into consumption readily, and the meat that accummulated in the stores consisted very largely of old ewes. This surplus meat gradually fUleo , the stores-all over England. ' The sale of the ewe mutton became so slow that as time went on we had to make conditional sales. We sold th e lamb to customers' on condition that for every carcase of lamb they took two carcases of mutton, chiefly the old ewes. This worked well, but unfortunately the British Government sold roughly 2,000,000 carcases of lamb last season to the United States, and so took away the sole lever that we possessed for enforcing the sale of the ewes. . " The Amricans at the same time had fresh bright beef to offer, and they made it a condition that with each quarter of this beef the buyer should take ten carcases of ewe mutton. Now that the distributors of New Zealand meat are deprived of the lamb, they have no inducement to offer t67 the buyers, and >his naturally forces the trade f nto American hands ..it is unfortunate from our point oi'view, that during the war the Argentine shippers had a great pull over the English distributors from th e fact that the Argentine meat was put on the market ex ship as soon as it arrived and being fresh and bright found a ready sale. The Americans were able to sell fresh bright beef in England throughout the whole of the war. A good deal of the best of the frozen beef was used for army consumption in the war years, the secondary beef from Nesw Zjeialand and Australia (being put into the stores and held until it was required to fill up gaps in supplies when any shortage of Argentine beef prevailed, ONLY DREGS LEFT,

"The sale of New Zealand lamb to America by the British Government was a severe blow to the distributors in Britain, ; Most people interested in the meat trade condemned the : proceeding as being most unfair. 'There might have some excuse if the Americans, had taken a fair share of the stale meat that was giving us all the trouble, but to sell the cream of the frozen meat abroad and leave us with merely the dregs to sell was not a just or reasonable prpposition. More recently the meat trade has been staggered by the announcement that a sale has been made of the remainder pf the British Government's purchases in N,e>v Zealand and Australia of beef and cut mutton, This, at first sight might be taken \o afford help in getting rid of surplus stocks, but the point to notice is that the Government have sold comparatively fresh meat to Vesteys, and left the distributors in England again to face the problem of selling the accumulated stocks of stale meat. Possibly much of the beef covered by this sale to Vesteys may not be extra but even secondary beef wpuld be preferable to no beef at all from th« point of view of the distributors whq have the handling of the qhj niuttefl The trade in tendon apparently will shortly i>g * n the position of having no frozen beef.

" These arrangements, however, are facts accomplished, and although they may b e regrettable, it is too late to alter them. With regard to the future, we would point out that through these adverse New Zealand has to a very large extent lost th e enviable position that

she formerly held. The Dominion does not retain the reputation of being able to supply the best quality frozen meat on the English market, and it will take some little time and steady perseverance to build up the reputation again. It is highly important, therefore, that the utmost endeavours should be used to supply a liberal quantity of that article by which in years gone by the Dominion made and held a reputation second to none on the English market, THE BEST CUSTOMER. " We are firmly convinced that if New Zealand shippers, tempted by a slightly higher price, offered by other buyers allow th e cream of the meat, that is the lamb, to -b e diverted into other channels, it will be idle to expect to regain th e old position by shipping to England merely what is not required by these other buyers. After all, England has been and will continue to b e New Zealand''s best customer, and f° r a temporary advantage i° price and without any guarantee of a future constant demand, it seems hardly likely that New Zealand will be prepared to jeopardise her brilliant prospects in the Old Country. ' " The British Government have been asked for a certain amount of space to be given to New Zealand shippers* so as to allow them to commence shipping the new meat as soon as Stocks ar c available. The authorities in Britain naturally wish to get clear of their stale mutton, and. if they allow fresh mutton to come in from New Zealand, the new meat will get such an immense preference as seriusly to interfere with the sale of the old stocks. But if the bulk of the meat shipped from this side to start with consists of lambs, the British Government will, have no cause to fear the competition. On the contrary, the presence of the new lamb in the market will give an immense impetus to the sale of the old stocks of mutton, since th e sellers could arrange their sales' so that the old meat would be put into the market with the help of the freshly-imported lamb. " Th© price of New Zealand lamb in England at the moment is fixed at Is Id to the butcher, but we hope that when the facts of the case are fully explained to th e Government, and with the pressure that might be brought to bear both from this side and in England, they will se c the seriousness of the position and allow New Zealand lamb to be sold at its tru e market value, and this for the early shipments would probably be from Is 2d to Is 6d per lb."