FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3034, 8 May 1912, Page 21

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

COAL STRIKE AND THE MEAT TRADE. A PANICKY BUTTER MARKET, i (From Ouh Own Correspondent.) ! LONDON, March 29. The coal strike has now been raging for just 30 days, and yet the output of meat at Smithfieid is normal ! This is all that need be said to indicate the marvellous stability of the Home markets, as prices might be up for famine or down for lack of transport As a matter of fact, they are neither, but with the advance of spring and the approach of the height of the lamb season, ratc3 are steadily climbing up a 3 if no such thing as a national strike existed PBOSPECTB OF CONSUMPTION. It is all simply astounding, because one has only to refer to the morning papers to see a daily list of large firms closing their works for want of coal, and the out-of-work army must be approaching the three-onillion * stage. London, however, is feeling the pinoh least of all. though the reports from Liverpool state that the meat trade is rapidly becoming duller. Who can wonder at it? Strike pay will not last forever, and frozen meat consumption in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and elsewhere in the north must from now fall away in increasing ratio as the strike continues on its way. I REFRIGERATED BHIPPING. \ Shipping will soon be seriously disorganised, and iry leaders may possibly know that one line at least is filling a big lump of the cargo space of their refrigerated vessels with coal, so that they will not need to coal anywhere else on the way home. The Argentine services, however, are suffering most, though the great secrecy being observed by all the shipping companies with regard to the difficulties they are now tackling makes it extremely hard to give the full facts. Yesterday I heard that four Argentine refrigerated moat boats are held up on the. British coast. One I know is a Nelson liner, another, I believe, is a Houlder boat on the West Coast service, and the Royal Mail Company is also, I hear, laying up some of its vessels Argentina's position. ! This disorganisation of Argentine refrigerated meat imports may, if it continues, place Australasian supplies in a stronger position, though there also is the fact that if the price of Argentine stock is further cheapened by the stoppage, there will be a reflex action later, and the last state may be worse than the first. Argentina Bcoins fated to spoil the market somehow. If it is not beef it is mutton, and if it is not mutton it is lamb. One of the main reasons for the poor complexion of the frozen mutton market at Smithfieid' now —all except light carcases are weak—is the miserable competition of Plate imutton. I say " miserable " because it is a shame that nearly all the Plate arrivals should contain .a majority of meat going out at 3d, or a small fraction over, although this probably cost the sellers 4d a lb. The one thing necessary to the South Americans is turnover. They care little for a whole year's loss if they can recouo the next or on some other meat. In the meantime , the ■ whole trade is prostituted to their ; cheapness, and the "colonial" suffers. t LIGHTER STOCKS. ' For the present satisfactory state of the frozen moat market we in large measure owe thanks to Australia, which in January reduced her mutton exports to the Old Country from tha glutting 1911 level of 600,000' carcases to 276,000 carcases. On market the total stocks of mutton and lamb a.re spoken of as more than half a million below those of last year. March arrivals will, it 13 true, be in excess of last year (New Zealand mutton 290,000 carcases

against 170,000, lambs 326,000 against 304,000; Australian mutton 267,000 against 175,000, and lambs 158,000 against 101,000); but the market, in the event of the fairly early settlement of the strike, is ready for all this, and I should not be exaggerating if I said that West SmithfieQJ is quite "chirpy " about the future. A well-known salesman, Mr Harry Lawson. of Brewster and Frosts, prophesies 3s 6a ex ship for Canterbury lamb right through. At all events, the demand for lambs is increasing every day. FRUIT. People in Covent Garden who know of New Zealand's success in the dairy and meat markets are constantly asking me why the Dominion does not make a really serious entry into the apple trade. It is expected that the present season here will be a record one for Australia, tho Thermistccles, Ascanius, and the Orsova having started well at good prices. About 450,000 boxes are to come from Australia, and more than 700,000 from Tasmania. Hamburg is an expanding market for these apples, and sonic consignments have even been shipped over to America last year, though it is a poor speculation so tar. J THE DBOP IN BUTTEK ' Those who have been striving for a cheaper butter market have found the coal strike a powerful factor working on their behalf. So strong a hold has the idea of a lessened demand taken in Tooley Street that something of a panic has been raging there during the last few days, and prices have now receded to 122 sto 124 s for choicest New Zealand, and 2s less for Australian. Naturally, this has given margarine its long-awaited chance, and large quantities of this product are being pushed forward to take the place of butter in cheaper markets. This is more or less of a disaster ; for butter, and some people are saying that •things will not recover this "colonial" ' season. The same parties are falsifying the I issue by asserting tha<t it is the statistical ■ position which is responsible for this collapse of the butter market, which, as Euclid would say, is absurd. Viewed statistically, there is no cause for alarm, and I should not be surprised if a week hence or scon after things do not steady themselves, as not only is there the great "colonial" shortage of which my readers are only too well aware, but the shortage in Europeanproduced imports here has, as Messrs W. Weddel and Co. point out this week, exceeded 1300 tons in the past four weeks, an average decline of 36,75'2 bojes a week marking Australian arrivals tor the past five weeks prior to last week. New Zealand remaining about normal. Statistically, then, we arc sound, and I trust that the market will act accordingly.