FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16338, 22 March 1915, Page 9

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

THE PRE-EMINENCE OF FROZEN MEAT. DANGERS IN THE SITUATION. (Fnoa Orni Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 22. Frozen meat has more than regained the place of importance which it temporarily lost in the British markets in the autumn owing to .the glut of home-killed supplies. To-day everyone is talking oi frozen meat, and tne daily press refers to it as one of the mighty resources of the Empire, which is a matter for pleasant congratulation among those who havo long worked to secure it its proper place in tho public esteem. In the same way as one of the leaders of the British army declared that " cold; storage saved South Africa," so it may be that cold storage will save the British Empire, and, indeed, all that that power is embracing at this time. POSSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION. The position to-day is quite a volte face from the situation a few years ago, when tne trade was lighting for existence, so that those in the industry may be forgiven if they overlook one or two points which havo seriously to be. taken into account vjust now. For thero are both difficulties and dangers ahead. New Zealand, it is true, i 6 to be congratulated on tho sound position in which ahe finds herself as regards production. . New Zealand, in the consumers' markets-, too, finds itself in a favoured position, and tho rates for Wellington lambs quoted this week ma!lce interesting comparison with the rates of former years. There is a point at which demand falls off, but that is not here or now. The danger that lurks is rather that the Government, led on by feverish tirades against " dear food," may step in and harass a business which has quite enough obstacles as it is. Wholesale sugar users have no cause to thank the Government for such procedure recently taken, but action on the part of the State in the case of the imported meat industry would be more serious still.

THE RISE IN PRICES,

The question of the movement that prices have made so far since the war began is one profitable to consider for a moment. The Board of Trade has dealt fully with food's war prices, and its finding is that on the whole they have risen some 19 or 20 per cent. Talcing the different commodities separately,. it is not surprising to find that frozen meat has experienced a bigger rise than home-killed, and also than some other articles of food. The cheapest item should, In view of its intrinsic quality, have the greatest latitude. In beef, whereas home-killed ribs and thin flanks have increased in price since July in the large towns by 6 and 15 per cent, respectively, frozen ribs and thin flanks have risen 16 and 32 per cent, respectively. Taking mutton, we find, according to the Board of Trade's calculations, that home-killed legs and breast have risen 6 and 16 per cent, respectively, and frozen legs and breast- 19 and 28 per cent. The Advisory Committee of the National Federation of Meat Traders' Association a week or so since recommended to the Board of Trade that Id to 2d more per lb may be reasonably charged, retail, for primp joints of frozen meat than' in mid-July last, and 2d to 3d per lb. more for coarser parts, while frozen mutton should generally stand at 2d per lb higher than before the war. SUPPLY v. DEMAND. But whether or not this current price situation is one which is taxing the consumer up to the point at which his consumption falls seriously away is, perhaps, not so vital to the frozen meat producer, at this period as the way in which the latter will have to meet the still greater call made on his resources by the swollen demand which may think is at last more than the present meat souroes of the world can satisfy. France to date is said to . have ordered no less than 150,000 tons of frozen ■meat—the equivalent of six million mutton carcases, or, actually as many carcases as New Zealand supplied the United Kingdom in mutton and lamb together in the whole of last year. This entry of France into the arena of frozen meat consumption will at once be recognised as stupendous, and it must have a big influence on the world's market. Is there enough meat to go round? FRANCE'S URGENT CALL.

Already the agricultural societies of France, which a year ago were hurling anathema at the idea of importing meat, are recommending the immediate erection of big cold storage depots on the lines of British stores, to hold meat which must, they say, be eaten by civilians as well as the military, in order to conserve the herds and flocks of their own country; In the further conduct of the war it will be the task of the allied Governments to see that neither the French nor any other of the armies go short of food, and the influence which shortage generally has on prices will not, in all probability, be allowed to have sway beyond a oertain point. To-day the 6d per lb by the side which the British Government is paying for frozen beef has a definite relation to the market price. Rates in- the ordinary markets may continue to soar in the following months, but there is no assurance that the Government will extend its price accordingly, and just now it is taking rather more than half the frozen beef shipped by Australia. New Zealand, and Argentina together. FREIGHTS. The freights question is one which will have agitated the New Zealand as well as the Homg press at this time. Whatever may be said of the risen freights for wheat from the Plate and for other commodities in other quarters, it can hardly be said that the shipowner has placed undue burden on the Australasian frozen meat industry, although he himself has, for instance, to pay just double normal prices for coal at Port Said, while coal freights down the East Coast of England have jumped from 3s to more than 13s, besides other costs rising in almost every case. The British Government has requisitioned at the moment nearly 1800 vessels in all, and of these, the refrigerated fleet is a good large one, the refrigerated shipowner not knowing day by day what he has left available It has been said that the Port of London has been caught napping by the war. Certainly there is very serious congestion, extending for over a .month right up to the present date, and many frozen meat vessels out of .the convoy are still lying without berths to discharge their cargoes, which perhaps; may not nff-er nil be an unmixed evil for the market fyere.