MEAT AGREEMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21315, 17 October 1932, Page 11

MEAT AGREEMENT

CAUSE FOR SATISFACTION MR. COATES PRAISED "A WONDERFUL BARGAIN" "I think a very good arrangement has been made," said a prominent business man in Wellington interested in the export trade, in discussing the Ottawa meat agreement. "It is, in fact, a very much better agreement than any of us had hoped for. Mr. Coates is entitled to great credit for the success lie has achieved in this and other respects at Ottawa. "Personally, I am surprised at the comparatively small concessions we have made to Great Britain, and tho agreement in respect of meat, must be regarded as a wonderful bargain to the Dominion. Generally speaking, the Ottawa agreements must be regarded all round as very satisfactory, though it remains to be seen what effect Iho restrictions on foreign frozen meat will have, on prices." The progressive reductions in Britain's imports of foreign mutton, lamb and frozen beef, leaching 35 per cent, of the total for the year ended June 30, 1932, were, the business man continued, most satisfactory fiom the Dominion's point of view. The imports for the year mentioned were a very good starting point from which to make reductions, an, particularly in the case of Argentina, 'they were lower than for the two preceding years. Actually, of course, the abnormally heavy ship ments from New Zealand and Australia during the last 12 months had had a cumulative effect on prices in an overloaded market in London. Shipments From Argentina The shipments of frozen meat from New Zealand to the United Kingdom during the 12 months of the 1931-32 season ended September 30 were greater than ever before, totalling in the case of mutton and lamb alone 11,805,490 carcases, an increase of 1,500.000 caicases on the previous season. This high rate of export from New Zealand could not continuo, because it meant that the Dominion was actually eating into its "capital" livestock. The interim sheep returns as at April last showed a decrease of about 2,000,000 in the Dominion's flocks in two years. On the other hand, tho imports into Britain from Argentina during the last three years ended June 30 had shown progressive decreases in beef (chilled and frozen), as well as in mutton and lamb, as could be seen from the following figures:— CHILLED BEEF Year ended .Tune Quarters .19:50 6,108,000 193 5.865,000 1932 5,359,000 FROZEN BEEF 1930 126,000 1931 141,000 1932 .. .. .82,000 FROZEN MUTTON Caresses 1930 2,217,000 1931 1,209,000 1932 1,153,000 FROZEN LAMB 1930 5,043,000 1931 .. i. .. 5,218.000 1932 4,63?, 000 The Continental Quota Thus it would be seen the percentage reductions, reaching 35 per cent for the quarter ended June 30, 1934, and thereafter not less than 35 per cent for the period of the agreement, would operate in the case of Argentina on the lowest figures since 1930. The flooding of the English market with bacon and other pigmeat which, as Mr. Coates had mentioned, had been of such magnitude as to account in itself for the collapse of meat prices, had been in large measure due to the closing of important European markets to producing countries like Denmark. As an illustration of how Continental quota restrictions tended to divert abnormal supplies of produce to Britain, the business man interviewed produced a cable message received from his, London agents stating that of 2652 tons of butter exported by Denmark during the past week 39 per cent had gone to Britain and only 3 per cent to -Germany, which formerly used to take as much as 20 per cent of Denmark's butter. Finally, it had to be remembered there was additional reason for satisfaction in the meat agreement, in that the British farmer, who had been badly hit by the vast and abnormal increase in imported meat, had not had any quota restriction placed on imports of meat from New Zealand.