FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3383, 15 January 1919, Page 11

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

THE PEACE-ERA CALL FOR MEAT.

I THE AMERICAN MEAT TRUST. i i | (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, November 12. There have been some kaleidoscopic I changes in the general meat situation as ' affecting tho British population during the last week or two. Since the onward march of the victorious Allies assumed a good paco there has been a new factor creeping into the food situation, and that is the necessity to provide something more each week towards the provisionment of the freed territories and peoples in Flanders and elsewhere. Peace—or, at least, the cessation of hostilities —oamo yesterday, and to-day the press announces that the Allies i are to feed Germany. This, of course, ] means a still broader distributive system ; for the whole of the" world's mean supplies, i and every ounce of meat during the next : 12 months will be wanted for the disen- : gaged fleets to carry over oceans now free from submarines. PEACE DEVELOPMENTS. j It is only a week or two since we were right in the midst of a rush to get on with meat freezing for home-slaughtered stock in Great Britain. The cold, stores at Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow were just getting under way with this when Government programmes seemed to alter, and an early halt has been called for this proceeding. As a matter of fact, quite a number of cargoes of frozen meat have suddenly arrived at English ports, | which seemed to be quite unexpected by everyone, and this modifies policy somewhat to the extent of stopping this meatfreezing proposition, which, at the best, was an extremely . uneconomical proposal from nearly every point of view. ! TO FEED EUROPE. I Doubtless before these lines are in print many ships, otherwise held from their legitimate function, will be carrying the long-delayed loads of Australasian meat to Europe, which sadly needs them. How far I there is a world meat shortage, it is hard j to gauge, but at any rate the opportunity lies straight ahead during the next 12 months of rnorp economically distributing over the populations most in need and available supplies from all the sources of . the Southern Hemisphere. Undoubtedly, the growing supplies from the countries of the Southern Cross will be more efficiently used. Australia's return to fuller stocks will be welcome, and New Zealand's contribution, as full as ever, will be a great help. Turning to South America we have countries of rising production like Brazil, j whence as between 1916 and 1917 the meat exports were doubled —from 33,000 to 66,000 tons. The total calculation of Brazil's head ! of stock is 29,000,000. ' This State is only ! one of those that must contribute in the : future, and for all ihere is a big time i ahead. i REOONSTRUOTION IN THE MEAT TRADE. ■ After four long, dragging years of war . peace has come with startling suddenness, ! and with it we find ourselves plunged into j a maze of problems that may, most , of them, be brought under the one head of ' "Reconstruction." The overseas meat I trade, built up again, will probably be a j structure rather different from that of prewar days Granting that urgent European ! needs for meat may extend well over 1919, it may be 18 months or two years before the Ministry of Food ceases to let the sources of production gain normal touch with marketers and distributors over here. Will those ranks of middlemen ever be the same as before? Few expect that the speculator will be out and abroad in tho meat market as of old; the o.i.f. buyer will not loom as large as he "did; and probably we shall find that the principle of nominated commission agency business, representing the producer direct in the market, of consumption will . be given a vogue it has not received of late years. BRITISH OR FOREIGN? Another question which is exercising many minds is what proportion of the inI dustry will be bona fide British trade in the future. This is a matter which largely depends upon Government action, and it is believed that the Imperial Conferences* of several months back have already decided tho main character of tho part the Imperial Government will take in protecting this issue. An authority, in commenting on this situation and its bearing on the American Beef Trust problem, _ said the i other day that conditions in this country j and in the colonies are ripe for study by a . committee not quite so simple as that | which sat some years ago, and reported ! in a nebulous. fashion on the trust quesi tion. He added that the present time, I when the ordinary market conditions are I not operating would be 1 well filled in by j determining what are to be the future rela- ! tions of Smithfield with its main sources of i supply. Proceeding to speak of the British I dominions and tho American beef firms, tho , samei authority said that the alarm of the stock-raisers in New Zealand is understandable if they have heard of what has happened to their fellows in the United States. " It i 3 our opinion," says tho American Federal Trade Commission, "that the failure of Amerioan meat production to keep pace with population is in largo measure due to the conditions created and

maintained in the markets 01 the " Big Five." Their conspiracies and unfair practices have disheartened producers of livo stock by destroying their confidence in the fairness of the marketing system to such an extent that large numbers have abandoneld or curtailed their operations. Thousands of the more intelligent producers today regard the stockyard markets as gambling places in which the packer-owners not only take an exorbitant percentage, but rig and control the game itself." That, of. course, is a. condition which is likely to become , general wherever trust control becomes paramount, and it is this fear and apprehension which were doubtless the cause of the New Zealand Commission, which reported on the trust question.