MEAT PRICES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 8 March 1921, Page 24

MEAT PRICES.

SLUMP INT THE EXPORT MARKET. During the past week or two the wholesale meat market has weakened considerably, and prices to-day are very much easier. Most of the large exporting firms have notified sellers that they have reduced their buying prices, and it was reported last week that one exporting firm had ceased buying altogether. The head of one stock and station house was asked if the present waterside trouble had anything to do with the fall in values. He said it had not. The cause of the weak market, he continued, was the fact that the demand from the outside markets had dropped very appreciably. The prices of hides, .kins, and pelts have also slumped heavily, and even at the current low values they are practically unsaleable. To show how the values for export have fallen the following buying quotations, just issued by a leading New Zealand export firm, should be read with the greatest interest. A comparison is made in the case of beef with the quotations of February 15: BEEF.

THE RETAIL TRADE. In the face of the foregoing prices the thrifty housewife naturally asks s when retail values are to fall. Inquiries made by one of our reporters last week went to that retail prices are steadily, if som<wrhat slowly, commencing to fall. The manager of one of the largest Dunedin butcheries stated that his firm had last Thursday reduced the prices of some of its lines by Id and per lb, and that it would probably have to make a still further reduction. He pointed out, however, that butchers could not now get any return for their hides or skins, that they still had to pay high prices for first-class beef, and that the wages of their employees had increased very muoh since the outbreak of the war. A number of the smaller butchers have also reduced their selling prices. Whether the prices paid for their stock by butchers, and that at whioh they sell to their customers, represent a fair trading margin of profit only, or whether that profit is excessive, cannot be ascertained. If people like to patronise those shops which continue to charge high prices, and are satisfied to do so, it would seem that high prices will continue to be charged to them. Moreover, if people will patronise h’ghpriced shops when they could purchase their meat cheaper at other shops it is a matter which concerns them alone. The sharp, fall in prices must prove most unpleasant to those farmers who purchased land during the war period at inflated values. What effect the slump is to have on the financial and labour conditions of the dominion as a whole remains to be seen.

Feb. 15, Mar. 1. 1001b. 1001b. a. d. k. d. Prime ox beef ... 42 6 25 0 Seconds ox beef ... 5? 6 21 0

Prime heifer 37 6 22 6 Prime cow 25 0 17 6 Seconds, cow 20 0 12 0 LAMB. Mar. 1, Lamb up to 421b per lb. ... 7fd Lamb up to 42-501b ... 6jd Over 50ib ... 5 Id Seconds ... 7id WETHER. Lp to 641b ... 3fd 64-701b ... 2i}d Over 70ib ... 2id EWES. L T p to 641b ... 2gd 64-721b ... lid Over 721b ... lid