FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 46

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

A RISING MEAT MARKET. THE "BEEF TRUST" AT WORK. iFIiOJI OUS O\V« CoitJIKSrOIIDBKT.) LONDON, December 8. Although trade in frozen meat is not v, I-ju-t one could tali free and active, New Zealand meat is practically olf the market, and hisa- mutton and lamb, what theire is of it, meets a slight premium purely by reason of its Scarcity. For instance, as I write, inquiries trom Liverpool elicit the reply that there is not a emgle sheep cr lamb (New Zealand) in store m that centre, although a week or two ago reports stated that stocks weire *"n-y heavy there. As I write, a.ieo, there A-fe less than 5C03 sheep and 10,060 iambs (afloat from, the Dominion, and it certainly looks as if, in spite of a ratlhor dull trade lately, there is not to be enough New Zealand meat to go round the calendar here. IMPHOVIXG PRICE*. Trices geneiaily are decidedly firmer at the moment; cno . big importer tails mo he is making id atx>ve omruifieid rates this week-emu, and that is a pretty sure sitfn of a higher level to come. It is interesting to see- how prices may vear during the tvsoct month or tx>; the general opinion is that the market is bound to be a rising one. I'ne actual Cnrisanas trade is unlikely to prduuoe anything extraordinary, ir'ouitry and game ami one or two etceteras will probably be abuntJant, and, therefore, Cnrisaiios meat will not be at a premium. Australia is likely to ba a haavy shipper ot lambs v.»ry shoi-fely, and except lor pnmo oaicases—in whatever, proportion they mays prove to be—some cheap meat wild banco bo forthcoming. As a matter of fact, it ia hoped that frozen, meat prices will not creep up too high at this stage. 'lnis is for New Zealand s good as well as the rest. A good beginning is hour tho bottle, und artinciully high nates in January would do an immense amount of hajrm to the season. One lias only to cite past records in support of that. At the beginning of this year New Zealand (North island') mutton was making 4j>d—in March it was 3id' —in May 2 11-lbd. Note what the South Americans considered better policy. They kept River Plato mutton at 3jjd and, as everyone knows, they got a lot of trade. But, what is more, they wont on getting as much as 2£d when New Zealand mutton was down to 211-16 din May. Tco much emphasis cannot- be laid on the necessity for regularity of tirade. No quantity of fro.'.en mutton can bo sold at 4id, and a happy medium which is induced by foresight and control of shipments wins by far the greater annual income. CHILLED BEEF ARIIAtTGEMEXT. I understand that it is at last a fact tliat the Amoricuns —th*> '* Beef Trust," the '"B. : ig Six," or whatever .you like to call them —have at last come to an arrangement with British producing interests in South America to end the cut-throat competition in chilled meat exports. If Wiia works out well, ruinous prices for chilled b:cf should be a thing of the past, and New Zealand, so far as her frozen beef is concerned, will benefit in the same markets. 1 learn that it was the Yankees who made the advances in tin's matter and the typical British South American Company which they approached replied that this was only what it had been waiting for for a long time past. YANKEE AEGEXTIXE OPERATIONS.

This by no means eiwis the news regarding tiouih America, which, it current go.vsip is at all on the rignt track, is likely to be a region of interest tor some littio time yet. A London paper, tho Daily Mail, this week Ira* given publicity to tho report that Armours axe in negotiation with James Nelson and Sons (Ltd.) tor tlie purchase of their Las Pal mas freezing works at a price of half a million' sterliing- This is startling news enough, though ru'moure at mysterious attempts at deals on tho part of the Beef Tru?t have beau frequent of lata. The Las Palmae works of Nelson's have exported 314,fc76 frozen sheep and lambs, 104,288 fiozen beef quarters, and 47,256 chilled quartern dining tine first throe-quarters of this year. OTHER NEGOTIATIONS. There are, moreover, to hand a crop of other reports concerning American negotiations to capture the South American trade. One is that another member of the Trust has approached the typically British freezing company referred to in a previous paragraph, and offered to buy up the whole concern at the rate of £3 per share of its capital. This was declined by the English company, and the next move on the part of the Americans was to instruct nominees in Hamburg to buy up all available shares of the company. The company in question has, however, been looking after its stocK meanwhile. BOOTH AMERICAN MEAT SHARES. If the movements of shares of South American freezing companies are any criterion, there is something very substantial under all these reports. James Nelson's shares have rapidly risen during the last few days, and shares of the SmithficJd and Argentine Meat Company, in spite of tho ncent adverse report, have been rising and havo been bought persistently. LONDON PORT IMPROVEMENTS. Little time. I hear, is to be lost on tho part of tho Port of London Authority in setting about the schemes it proposes for improving London as a frozen produce port. Very soon work is to bo started in providing a, refrigerated sorting shed and cold storage accommodation at Tilbury Dock, an<i also a refrigerated sorting slied at Victoria Dock. A shed contemplated at South Dock may come rather later. MEAT BUSINESS BALE. A few months ago I reported the sale of the frozen meat retailing business of Messrs W. and R. Fletcher, Ltd., to Messrs Vestey Bros., Ltd., owners of the largest combination of cold stores in the world. Later I was asked to contradict tho report, which I did. Now at an extraordinary general meeting of the Union Cold Storage Co. Ltd., the purchase is announced as completed though that company is asked to sanction tho use for other purposes of tho £260,000 extra capital recently obtained f >r the purchase, it now being said that Messr3 Vostev, the leading parties in the Union Company, have sufficient money without this loan. Fletchers' retail frozen meat shops, as I previously noted, number 400 in England, and the Union Cold Storage Company will' have the contract for tho storage of meat for this business. A new company will be formed for the business which has changed hands.