THE RABBIT EXPORT TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2572, 8 July 1903, Page 10

THE RABBIT EXPORT TRADE .

THE LONDON MARKET GLUTTED.

loe and Cold Storage, a trade journal published in London, commenting in ifa latest issue on the importation of rabbits from Australia and New Zealand, declares the winter season to have been vary unsatisfactory and the opening season " beyond measure disastrous." Rabbits, it combinues, have been sold at a loss of from Is to 2s 6d per orate, importers having been glad to g»t rid of them at that price. Tliese losses are not attributed to over-supply, or to had freezing or defective packing, and indeed their cause is not abated. Inquiry macte locally shows that the losses of the London merchants a.re not duo to any particular defect. The London merchant, it ae&ma, had given higher prices than the market warpainted, amd diose bigbe>r prices were the result »f excessive competition among the merchants there and among the agonts here, who stand between the trapper amd £h.e London importer. According bo Mr Trengrouaa, of the firm of H. Trengrouse and Co., importers, of Tooley street,- London, and another London importer, both of whom are at present in Melbourne (and havo been interviewed by the Age), the buyers of frozen rabbits do not cat rabbits because they are preferred to mutton or beef, but because they are obeat>. An increase of Ls p»r crate in tho price of rabhrts would, they say, reduce the market by 50 per cent. Then rabbit is an article of diet which cannot be eatwn every day, and the demand for it goes up and down with the prices of butcher's m>eat. The essential feature of the trade, therefore, if the demand is to be maintained, is that, the price of a pair of rabbits shall be k .»t within the means of the consumers. For some- time past, Mr Trenprouse states, 15s per crate of 24 rabbits has been paid by the London merchants— that is. 7^d per rabbit Storage charges Gave to be paid in London, and the importer and fcb* retailer have to get their profits. A ready sale for rah takes place a-t 8d eaoh recall, but ovary penny above that restricts the demand cousiderably. At present Mc-lbourno packers are offering 7£d fee 8d per pw, and upon this must ba paid rail to Melbourne, storage, grading, packing, shipping charges, , freight, insurance, and the profits of packers, London merchants, and retailers. By t/he time- thy London merobaitt rooorrefl the goo eta he has to pay 15s per crate, or 1b 3d per p*ir. It is said that not only have the London m«rohaiite had lo*» during the past few months, but also the Melbourne packing firms. The packers *nd tlve memb«r» of London firms who are here declare that the profits of the trade are being made before the rabbits reach Melbourne — that the railway station agents, the men who buy from the trappers, ar<> making money out of the trade. The understanding is that th«9e oollootors shall charge a farthing per pair for their part of the work ; but it is said that instead of btting content with this fee, they play off the packing firms against eaoh other, so that for

rabbits for which they hare paid perhaps 6'"l per paii" to the trcpper, they get 7£d or even Bd. It is stated that there are many oases in which their profit amounts to a penny per pair, instead of a farthing. One large London buyer, who is here making in-* quiries into the local conditions of the trade, informed the Age representative that if the rabbit trapper continued to receive his present prices, and the collecting agent only got his id per pair, and the. packers ceased competing against each other, the price per orate to the London merchants coukl be brought down to 133. The result of this reduction, he said, would be the doubling of the market in Britain. Mr Trengrouse thought, however, that a reduction to 14* per crate might suffice. Both Mr Trengrouse and the other London merchant are of opinion .that _ a crisis has been reached- in the trade, which may havo a serious effect upon it. Hitherto, the practice has been for these merchants to buy months ahead at a fixed price. It havingbeen found that that price wae too high, the pries must come down, or the traj>pers and packers here must make their own arrangements for finding a market. The trouble also applies to N^ew Zealand rabbits. Mr Tren^rouse quoted an instance in which an importer had paid 16a l±d per crate for Nfav Zealand rabbits, and sold to clear out of them at 12s per crate. This gentleman said that, of course, the- market would readjust itself. The London merchants would not continue trading at a loss. They, bowevpr. wore prepared to go on importing rtNKii-.-! provided som<» effort were mado in Melbourne to keep the cost of the rabbit on the oast or monger's oart at a figure within re^ch of the consumer.

Thoso views (adds tho Age) are in bhe main supported by the Gove-rnino>nt officer in charce of the cool stores, Mr Crowe. This gentleman says that lie has no complaints eufcW of the treatment or grading of th« rabbits in Melbourne. "The trouble in T.-ondon." he adds. " has arisen because •the TJontlon merchants paid too high a prico for the r»bhit* but that will rieht itself in time. Composition is so keon that the trapper is in the meantime gettinpr the advantnjfe. The orice is made in London by morc^ants wbo tmy months ahead and take all risk^ The people in the colonies are not to blamo."