THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 8

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

The C.C. and D. Company, in their annual review of the" frozen- meat trade, report: — Nothing in the distribution of frozen aeat over the Home markets calls for any special comment. There has been a large inciease in quantities of colonial meat going to provincial ports, and it is stated that next, year Hull is to be included in the list of ports with a regular service from Australia. .So far as England is concerned, colonial .visitors who take the trouble to investigate invariably find that t£e market is ixpioited- to its -fullest capacity. Scotland, Ireland, and to some extent Wales, are less attracted by frozen meat for local reasons, md the trade makes slow headway in" these countries. ' The total population of the United Kingdom is not therefore the index to the size of the market served.

The increase in the receipts of lamb is more remarkable than in the case of mutton, and amounts 'to an advance of 26 per cent, on the importations ir 1908. The stocr returnr x or New Zealand had- indicated the possibility of much kirgei numbers of lamb being exported but .the. estimate 'in our last Review of 3,000,000 car cases has been exceeded by 165,496 ?a incases. There has also beer a. further substantial increase in the receipts from_ South America, which made an appreciable difference to the market: for Australian lamb "' ~• .

Tne outstanding lesson to be derived from the year's tr.ad : ng is that the limit «jf the capacity .of this market to absorb frozen lamb at remunerative prices under existing conditions has been reached. It is trua that the weather, throughout the uramer was very unfavourable to the trad?, but in spite of this it was generally conceded that the output each week during the season- exceeded that of the corresponding weeks V the previous twelve months. • '

. The increase shown in the imports of Veef from New Zealand was largely, owing to the shipment 'of quantities of secondary Ox and cow beef, and unfortunately the superiority of the best grades over other frozen beef has M>t been regularly maintained. On more than one occasion Argentine beef commanded more money than could be obtained for any of the New Zealand beef then on offer. There is a considerable market for the secondary qualities of frozen beef now that the importation of boned beet is practically stopped, but it. is a pity that the standard of the prime grades should not be maintained at the same time. An unusually good market •was met in June and the early-"part of July, owing*to light stocks and the dearness of chfDed beef, and prices reached «*d per lb for hinds and 3d per lb for fores, but during the greater part of the year quotations ranged between 3d and Ud per lb for hinds and 2£d-to 3d per !b for fores. The actual average prices realised for all grades of New Zealand beef during the twelve months are 3.40 d per lb for hinds and 2.64-d per lb for fore-" quarters, compared with 3.65 d ner lb and 2.95 d per lb respectively -in 1908. I<: js curious that an unprofitable year ehould be distinguished "also by a great access of activity. in the direction of estabnew works. This is not due to any Jack of capacity on the part of the existing works to deal with the stock offered, but rather to a belief in the minds of manv *tockowners that they can underUfc* the business with profit to themselves. in ?vew Zealand, the Nelson Freezing Company, which opened on March 1 -s the only new company actually in operation, but works at Tokomaru Bay are to be. completed by October, 1910, and companies are in course of formation to erect other works at Tolago Bay and at WainJ3W&. - - . -r ■ .-

In Australia the Geelong Harbour Trust .have completed works at Corio Bay , withthe exnectation of increasing; the output from that port, and the Wimmera Freezing Company contemplate the erection of •"orks at Murtoa. The stockowneir? of Oucenekmd have upon a scheme for enuipmnp' co-operative factories in Central and Northern Cueensland. but the of freezing plant is not finally seMiod.

An interestinp; experiment has been nrofected to deal with the cattle in the Northern Territory . A steamer is to be flou'nped a*, a floating abattoir and freezingworks and! is to travel from port to port fo collect, the cattle. In South America a Chicago house is report- .d to have secured a site fo; another factory at La Plata, and therr is talk of a third establishment on the Patagonian coast.