FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2862, 20 January 1909, Page 9

FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

LOWER PRICES ANTICIPATED. LONDON, January 14. '- Th-3 Culonial Consignment Company's annual review of the frozen meat trade i anticipates lower prices for the current year than those that prevailed last year, owing to the purchasing power being retrieted and the fact that the rate of meat consumption can only be maintained at low prices. » A NOTE OF WARNING. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, January 15. Messrs Kaye and Carter (Ltd.) have received from Messrs Gilbert Anderson and Co., their London aigents. a report of the meat maa-ket under date of December 4, which contains the following interesting, though not perliaps very cheering, passages: — "During the last few weeks the market all round has been very depressed, and trade has been very slow. As one waits round the Smithfield market it looks very deserted, except for the fact that the stalls are full of meat, but tine buyers are not to be seen. This ! time of year is always a bad time for the colonial trade in frozen meat owing to so much Dutch meat arriving. This year there has been more than usual, about 20,000 carcases of mutton and lamb I being each week marketed for the last ! two months. These supplies are expected j to keep up until February. This meat is of good quality, and quite fresh, being killed one day in Holland and forwarded the same day to Smithfie-M to be sold, atid it has to be sold at the best price obtainable, nothing being held over until the next day. As low as 4d per lb has been accepted for Dutch meat this week. It -will be seen that it is a haid job to obtain for Canterbury meat anything like this price. "As far as Canterbury mutton is concerned to the retailer, it is a thing of the past. Very few still buy it, and then only foi the biand — ceitainly not for the quality, which L-. inferior to much of the Noith L-land and River Plate meat. It must be admitted that so far as mutton 1 is concerned the Plate has the pull over New Zealand. Its shipments are regular, its meat better butchered and graded, and . also better looked after. Although | ; the meat has only half the voyage it is \ put in a, proper bag, which lands the | ' meat in a very bright condition, and it i , is au exception to hear of surveys for [ : insurance damage on Plate goods- The i ; retailer wants an article upon which he j ] can depend. He docs not want Canter- j 1 bury one week and then find that no I supplies are coming for a further four \ weeks. When he starts an article he | •wants to go on with it, and this he can 1 ] do with the Plate, regular shipments , ; arriving every week, and the price reason- j j abLe, and at "n hich he can retail at a ' j profit. I ] "As regiii-cl- lambs, however, Canter- 1 ] bury holds the top place, and -we cannot j j

too much imj re=s upon the New Zealanc farmer not to less it. There is no doubl that Canterbury lamb, even when frozen in far ahead of both English and Scoter iamb, and the proof of this is that, especially in the London season, it is solo largely ?s English and Scotch. Th« prejudice against frozen meat has quite died out here, and people ask for Canterbury in preference to the home article. A few years ago no English butcher wouM sell frozen lamb, bui he has now found that if hs does not he will lose hie customers, and the majority of butchers in the English and Scotch trade now sel] frozen meat. "We do not expect to see prices improve until after the New Year. Trade all round is deplorable, and people simply have not the money to spend, and the retailers are not giving credit except to thasa whom they know are safe. This means that they have less money to spend on meat, and therefore they buy a cheaper article and kes of it. If this continues we fear that they will have to go back to the time before the introduction of frozen meat and 'ive on bread and cheese, for an occasional Sunday dinner of meat."