POET OF GLASGOW

Southland Times, Issue 20619, 18 October 1928, Page 5

POET OF GLASGOW

NEW MARKET FOR N.Z. PRODUCTS. LARGE POPULATION SERVED. DIRECT SHIPMENTS REQUIRED. A visitor of importance to the primary producers and shipping agents of New Zealand is at present in Invercargill in the person of Mr. Harold M. Ford, the secretary of the Clyde Navigation Trust, the controlling authority of the Port of Glasgow. With the backing of that body and the Glasgow Chamber of Commefce, Mr. Ford is making a tour of New Zealand and Australia to make known to the primary producers of those countries the great value to them of Glasgow as a marketing centre for the whole of northern Britain and Ireland. The area supplied by the port of Glasgow covers the industrial centres of Northumberland and Durham in the south, Belfast in northern Ireland, and the whole of industrial Scotland. In an interview Mr. Ford gave some interesting details of the advantages of establishing a direct trade through Glasgow. Another object of his mission was to bring to the attention of New Zealand and Australia the special position of Glasgow in regard to the basic industries of Scotland and wilt they had to offer. It was hoped in industrial circles there that just as their people were rapidly acquiring the habit of buying dominion products, so the people out here would reciprocate whenever and wherever it was possible by giving sympathetic consideration to the manufacturing industries of Scotland when placing their order. So far as New Zealand and Australian producers were concerned, Glasgow's greatest assets were undoubtedly its magnificent markets, enthusiastic traders, and a population which were rapidly acquiring the spirit of trade within the Empire. “Glasgow's meat market,” said Mr. Ford, “is undoubtedly the cleanest and bestj equipped market in Britain, and those en- : gaged in that market are only too anxious i to develop the marketing of Australian and I New Zealand meat in these parts. We also have a fine cheese market, and some of the largest distributors of dairy produce in Britain are to be found in Glasgow. Products Suffering. “Similar instances can be quoted in regard to other commodities, such as egg, dairy produce, etc. So far as your dairy produce is concerned, both New Zealand . butter and cheese are slowly but surely j gaining favour among the population which Glasgow serves. And this is undoubtedly largely attributable to the efforts now being put forward by the Empire Marketing Board, with its Luge propaganda scheme urging the housewives to buy dominion products. While it cannot be stated that you are starving our market, there can be no doubt that your products are suffering both in . regard to costs of marketing and from the risk of deterioration due to so many temperatures and handlings through the continuance of the policy of marketing the bulk of the produce through what I can best describe as the bottle neck of I London. ' “From the cable advices supplied by New I Zealand House, London, Great Britain imi ported approximately 128,000 tons of New | Zealand dairy produce in 1925. In 1927 that figure was increased to approximately 158,000 tons. Glasgow can and should supply approximately one-seventh of the total population of Britain, yet only some 4,000 tons of that great quantity was imported direct to our market, and it is fairly safe to say that five-sixths of your dairy produce consumed in our area was railed from London at a rail cost alone of 3s per cwt. Saving In Transport. “Nor is this all. London charges are far and away dearer than Glasgow’s, the cold storage being >he dearest in the country. It should be borne in mind that these differences have to be added to the cost of marketing the produce. Contrast these with the marketing of Danish and Continental butter. In the past it has been often argued at Home that London is the market, and consequently all supplies must be centralized there. Danish butter required for northern consumption is not shipped to London or indeed to Glasgow, but the Dane and his neighbours send no less than 25,000 tons per annum to the small port of Leith, on the east coast of Scotland sell-their butter on Tooley Street and on the Glasgow market, not ex London, with rail and storage costs of 3s 6d per cwt, but ex the nearest distributing port to the consuming population for which it is required.” It was therefore apparent, said Mr. Ford, that the foreign commodity had an advantage of 3s 6d per cwt. over every cwt of New Zealand butter shipped to and distributed through London. He believed ' that the Glasgow price was generally the London parity price, and frequently 3s per cwt more was realized but that amount was eaten up in the rpil and storage charges from London 400 miles away. New Market Facilities. In regard to meat Mr. Ford said that, in spite of the old prejudices and repeated warnings as to the alleged danger of decentralization of dominion food products from London, more meat was yearly being shipped to Glasgow for sale on the Glasgow market. For this- policy great credit was due to the visdom and foresight of the New Zealand Meat Control Board and its representative (Mr. Forsyth) in London. In spite of that, however, many of the traders alleged that the market was not being exploited to the full advantage. Had Glasgow had regular consignments of New Zealand lamb last year, when the Home season’s product was scarce and dear, there would have been a good opportunity for the expansionlof trade in mutton and lamb with the Dominion. What the Meat Board and the meat traders had done by decentralizing,, however, comparatively small the extent, surely could be done in connection with dairy and fruit products. Last year twenty-one boats arrived at Glasgow from New Zealand, and Mr. Ford’s submission and the opinion of many traders was that the ships could have taken far larger quantities of the perishable products with perfect safety and no risk of overloading the market. It was only by regular shipments direct to the old-established markets such as Glasgow that a trade in any com-, modify could be successfully built up. Ya?terday Mr. Ford accompanied the chairman of the Harbour Board to inspect the shipping facilities at Bluff and returned in the evening. This morning he will meet several of the leading exporters of Invercargill and will be entertained at the quarterly luncheon of the Chambctr off Commerce. In the evening he will address the executive of the Southland League. He will leave Invercargill by the mid-day express on Friday for Dunedin.