BACON AND PIGS

Southland Times, Issue 18932, 4 May 1923, Page 4

BACON AND PIGS

POSSIBILITIES OF EXPORT TRADE. (Per United Press Association). PALMERSTON NORTH, May 3. Mr J. S. Jessep, Vice-president of the Meat Control Board, advised the Dairy Farmers’ Union Conference to-day that while investigating the meat market in London on behalf of the Board, he had found that there was a good market for pork and bacon and agents told him that there was a prospect of developing the pork market. Pork weighed heavier than beef and he had managed to get freights reduced from 1 5-Bd, plus per cent, to Id and was confident that this would be further reduced. He thought that there would be a good demand for bacon if the right breed of pigs were used and they were exported to Britain at the right time, from September to the end of April. New Zealand was up against Denmark, who exported 50,000 tons of bacon in one month, while the Argentine and other countries had a large well organised trade. On the other hand, New Zealand’s climatic conditions were second to none and she had skim milk and green feed in plenty. As regards the weight of animals for export, pork of 60-lbs to 70-lbs, or 80-lbs at the outside, and bacon of 120-lbs to 180-lbs or 190-lbs at the outside, was in demand. The speaker stressed the fact that pigs should not be too fat, a frequent fault in New Zealand pigs. It would be agreed that New Zealand’s export trade could not be built up in a day, but he believed that within the next year there would be a big increase. Unless the right thing was done, there would soon be too few pigs in the country. There was only one way of bringing down the heavy load of taxation, and that was by increasing the exports. It was possible to do thia by increasing the export of pigs within the next few years by three or four millions.