AUSTRALIAN MEAT
BIG INCREASE IN EXPORTS FUTURE OF LAMB INDUSTRY (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, May 7. The increased exports of beef from Australia to the United Kingdom during 1937 were a notable development of the stock industry. Shipments were 1,440,502 quarters, the largest total for many years. They were 30 per cent, greater than the previous year and more than double the quantity recorded five years before. Lamb exported in 1937 gave producers a gross return of approximately £5,000,000 in Australian currency. These and many other facts are mentioned in the annual review issued by Winchcombe, Carson, Ltd.
Of the beef exports, Queensland shipments were 1,357,277 quarters, or 93 per cent, of the total. The stockowners in that State, therefore, received the most direct effects from the expansion in overseas business, but indirectly New South Wales cattle owners reaped definite advantages. Large supplies of Queensland cattle and chilled beef were prevented from flooding the New South Wales market, and by that means depressing values. Chilled beef exports are increasing. They comprised 352,953 quarters for the year, or about one-fourth of the total shipments, but five years ago exports of chilled beef were negligible. Progress has consequently been rapid. The decided extension in beef exports, it is considered, has been due to Great Britain’s Empire preference policy. That policy has stimulated attention to the Australian beef industry. At present Australia is supplying about 5 per cent, of the English imports of chilled beef, and South America, chiefly Argentina, 90 per cent.
Shipments of lamb from Australia to the United Kingdom reached the record level of 5,490,692 carcasses, of which the New South Wales total was 1,566.302, or over 50 per cent, more than a year before. Ten years ago Australia exported only 1,258,880 carcasses of lamb to Great Britain. Thus the trade has more than quadrupled. The review raises the question as to how much more lamb the United Kingdom can absorb annually. If prices receded, it states, consumptive ability would probably increase, though lower values would not be relished by producers. Some scope for further expansion in the Australian lamb industry exists, but if production continues to extbnd at the rate seen in recent years, additional outlets for exports must eventually become imperative.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 23500, 14 May 1938, Page 19
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374AUSTRALIAN MEAT Otago Daily Times, Issue 23500, 14 May 1938, Page 19
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