FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18007, 6 August 1920, Page 6

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

CHEAPER FROZEN MUTTON.

GOVERNMENT BUTTER POLICY,

From Otje Special Correspondent. ' LONDON, May 2G. J.ho Government has cautiously entered upon a policy of price reduction in frozen meat rather after the fashion of the. youngster who gingerly stepped into a foot of water after contemplating a heroic plunge in the deep end of the swimming bath. Urged on all sides to take the step which would have the one desired result of increasing meat consumption in Great Britain, tho Government has since my last letter decided to go at least a paTt of the way in tho desired direction. Tho result is said to have been favourable in increasing the. output of mutton from our greatly overcrowded stores, but thero are several improvements still necessary in. order to ameliorate the situation. THE NEW MEAT RATES. The extent to which the Government decided to reduce tho price of frozen mutton from the all-round wholesale rate of 9d per lb mi tho carcase is indicated in the followingtable. °

New AusZealand. tralian. „ , Per lb. Per lb. Cut ewes 7d oi<j Uncut owes gd 7^ Cm wotliers and togs .. .. sd 7^d Uncut wethers and tegs .. 9d g|i Inquiries I have made from tho wholesale trade elicit the fact that the reduction, while not as large as should have been made has at any rate actcd to some degree as a tonic on output.

MORE DIFFERENTIATION "WANTED. But the chief fault lying in the new scalo of rates is its unwieldy character as regard's different qualities of meat. Uncut New Zealand ewes are still charged for wholesale at tho samo rate as cut wethers and tegs, and the same applies to Australian meat which is id per lb chcaper, except for uncut carcases. this shows no approach at all towards discrimination, and until the oversight is remedied the trade will still be handicapped with the manifest difficulty of movin°- meat in accordance with anything like its intrinsic value. AVar trace under war conditions could bo borne with, but once tho law of supr.lv rc ' ll T lls indeed, supply fa much t d\S demand—quality must bo

MEAT RELEASE ORGANISATION. With, tho exception of the lack of differentiation m the wholesale meat rates table there arc not many complaints over current conditions. .Tho Australasian Meat Importers' Committee as still m nominal control of the Government releases, but the agents who are now getting the. meat through on the older 4°??% ;ed ,' b ° sls v do not receive it from tho '".M f t f T the of Food in the hands of which tho frozen meat and lamb business has now been placed. SALES TO AMERICA. Recent news is to the effect that' a good deal of British frozen mutton is findm- its way to America; indeed, I have heard reports that some parcels of New Zealand lamb have also been marketed in the States How that can be I do not know: it is apparently illegality on the part of someone. The United States is being looked to as a promising- meat importer for the future Her wave of industrialism has apparently carried her into the ranks of meat importing nations anco more, and it is unlikely that she will oeaso to require such outside meat for some time to come yet. Foreseeing- this quite a number of British meat firm? have cither extended) their New York and other American branches or have nowly ectablished agencies in that part of the world, and this 'market is sure to bo a prominent one for Australasia in tho future. THE GOVERNMENT AND BUTTER I have been unable so far to hear of a'nv decision 111 regard to future Government policy conoermng New Zealand butter There is no doubt that Sir Thomas Mackenzie's recent attacks on tho Imperial Government for its niggardly policy with regard to the dominion's product sank very deoply into the public and official mind, ajid his arguments have formed a strong plea for a free market in this butter in the future, in spit-o of the official tendency to rope in this commodity for another season at control rates, wliile as ho said, the Irish people were selling theirs at 5s per lb. Tho abolition of butter rationing as from next month should iuntisk furthor roaeau

for tho freeing- of the market. By tho "way, 1 sec that Mr Brazil, tho Wellington raana/gcr of tho National Dairy Association, is chio in Jjon<lojl to-morrow, and his address will l>c at tho olfiocs of tho association, at Colonial House, Tooley street, Loudon, S.E-., while Mr R. Ellison, tho popular London representative, is away in the dominion.