MEAT PROFITEERING

Otago Witness, Issue 3316, 3 October 1917, Page 12

MEAT PROFITEERING

NEW ZEALAND SUPPLY SHORT,

A GOOD ADVERTISEMENT. (Fkom Oub Own Cohrespondent.) LONDON, July 24. A gentleman who probably understands the Australasian meat trade better than anyone else in London, explained the other day that the disparity in the.price at which New Zealand meat reaches the wholesaler and that at which it reaches the public is duo in reality to tho smallness of the supply. Owing to the shortage of-tonnage and the fact that the Australian and New Zealand meat is commandeered for the army, there is a very limited surplus to put on, the market hero for civilian consumption. It is released by tho authorities and handled by the selling agents, who are .nominated: by the producers in New Zealand for that purpose, tho Government paying them their commission. Tho prices at which the meat is sold are fixed by the authorities to cover cost. But owing to tho short supply a. butcher who has a normal trade of, say, ten lambs could perhaps only get one imported carcase. The remaining nine had to be provided from stocks of English or Scotch, which cost him, say, Is per lb. To havo sold the New Zealand oareaso at a little over 30d would have pleased tremendously the half-dozen or so early-comers who got a share of it; but the story of their good luck would only have added to the discontent of the dozens of later customera who had to pay something more than Is 7£d a pound for the home-grown meat, which formed the balance of his stock. It is really not practicable for a retailer to mako two prices where the supply of tho cheaper variety is so limited, and obviously the reasonable course is to average the price over the whole ten carcases. Thisis, in fact, tho usual course, and is the cause of the apparent enormity of New Zealand meat (which goes to the wholesaler at something over lOd), reaching the householder at something between Is 8d and 2s. There is a temptation ; of 'course, to add a littlo to tho price to offset tho establishment charges, which havo to be borne during the war over a much smaller turnover than in peaco time. Tho Argentino producers have _ for soma time now been accepting for their mutton and lamb just about tho same prico that i 3 paid for Australian and New Zealand, so that all imported lamb and mutton is selling at about the same prico. Asked whether New Zealand meat was being prejudiced by present conditions, my informant said

he thought :t was rather the other way about. People were so anxious to get it on account of its cheapness that it was really being popularised.