THE ENGLISHMAN’S MEAT BILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3774, 13 July 1926, Page 12

THE ENGLISHMAN’S MEAT BILL.

“The importance of Great Britain in the world’s meat trade is evidenced,” says the Times of Argentina, “by the subjoined table, which shows imports into that country of fresh meats and bacon (not ham) for the year 1925. The figures have been compiled from a table published in the London Meat Trades’ Journal, which compares the totals with those for previous years. From these totals, it appears that British consumption of imported beef and mutton has remained fairly constant since the period just before the war, but that importations of bacon and fresh pork have increased materially since 1913 (the figures are in pounds):

“These figures indicate that Argentina remains far in the lead as a beef exporter, though Australia’s shippings last yeaT ' were almost double those of 1924. New Zealand and Argentina are still the principal sources of mutton and lamb for the British consumer. In the fresh pork trade, Holland in 1925 increased her exports by over 50 per cent., while those of the United States and Ireland fell off. Denmark continues to be the principal supplier of bacon, furnishing half of Britain’s imports of that commodity. Bacon exports from the United States declined further, while those of Canada showed an increase. “Imports for 1925,” states our authority, “of beef, mutton, and pork, fresh and cured, as shown in the table, with the inclusion of the 220,000,000 pounds, more or less, of ham imported from the United States, but exclusive of lard imports, aggregated approximately 3,200,000,000 pounds. This staggering total, on the basis of a population of. roughly 45,000,000, gives a per capita annual consumption in Great Britain of about 71 pounds of imported meats. As each inhabitant of the British Isles eats approximately 120 pounds of meat a year, 59 per cent, of his consumption is imported. “For this quantity of meat the Englishman last year paid something like 540.000,000 dollars—more than half a billion- But if we add the lard brought in from the United States, which aggregated another 220,000,000 pounds, we arrive at a total of 3,420,000,000 pounds of imported meat products, for which the people of Great Britain expended in 1925 close on 580,000 dollars, or almot 13 dollars for every man, woman, and child in the kingdom. “Add to the foregoing the numbers of live cattle imported into Great Britain in 1925 (the figures for 1924 are given for comparison), and we can have little doubt that there is something in the cry for increased production and trade within the Empire:— From— - United States .. .. 1,634 . 1,859 Canada 110,156 76,978 Irish Free State .. .. 688,120 931,614 Other countries 235 740 Totals 800,144 1,011,191 “Then, 407,587 live sheep were imported and also 97,695 pigs, which must be added to the Briton’s meat bill, since most of them find their way to the butcher’s block. For this stock about 85,000,000 dollars were paid, making the total

expenditure for meat, dead or on the hoof, 665,000,000 dollars, or practically 15 dollar* per capita.”

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