BACON INDUSTRY.

Shannon News, 10 November 1925, Page 4

BACON INDUSTRY.

GOOD EXPORT PROSPECT'S. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Inglewood Co-operative Bacon Company, Mr. A. Morton (chairman) who had just returned from a visit to the Old Country, said that during his trip abroad he had made it his busu •ness to acquire as much information as possible which might be useful to the company. During the last two or three years, the company had made shipments of pork to the Old Country, ’partly on consignment and partly on f.o.b. rates and, recognising ih,at thi s was a business which was likely to reach considerable proportions as the pig business expanded in the Dominion, he had met a large number of buyers and curers and discussed with them not only the prospects in connection with the frozen pork trade but other products of the company, too. Fortunately, just before lie left Now Zealand the company made its first shipment on consignment for tb® season under review, and this was followed by two others later in the season. He saw these pigs and was satisfied that they had been properly handled, and that they went into the store 3 in first-class condition. It was very pleasing to see pigs sent by the company on the English market, but it was more gratifying still to hear the expressions of satisfaction with the quality of th e pigs. Buyers and curers had told him that of all the pigs received into England they pre* ferred the New Zealand pigs, which most nearly approached those received from their own farmers in England and Scotland. They were anxious to enter into contracts for regular. monthly supplies of bacon pigs. He had pointed out, however, that this was impossible at the present time, but that in the future,' as the industry grew here, he had no doubt they woulq he able to mantain regular monthly supplies. As the result of his inquiries from merchants and buyers, and in the various markets, he was quite satisfied that, so long as they produced, lciLed and shipped the same class ol’ pigs as they had handled during the last twelve months, they would have no difficulty in finding a market. He could not say"any. thing in regard to price, but the tendency was for it to go up rather than come down. In any case, so long as they obtained prices equal to those which had been ruliug last season and which were still being maintained in the United Kingdom, he was satisfied it was going to be a.’payable trade They coud not possibly get such prices in New Zealand, and so long as they maintained their high quality they had nothing to l’era so far as competition was concerned. Continuing, Mr. Morton said thav, when they took into account the fact that New Zealand only killed about a quarter of a million pigs each year anq that Denmark, which was only about the size of the Hawke's Bay province, killed two and a-half mfi_ lion pigs every year and turned them into bacon, they would have some idea of what the possibilities out here were. Although he did not think for one moment that New Zealand was likely to approach these figures in the near future, he did feel that there was an excellent future in connection with a largely increased production here, and that it would pay farmers to look at the business in the way the Danish farmer did, not as a side-line but as one of the mainstays of tlte dairying and agricultural business.