WORLD TRADE IN MEAT

Southland Times, Issue 23381, 13 December 1937, Page 6

WORLD TRADE IN MEAT

SHARE HELD BY NEW ZEALAND SUPPLIES OF BEEF AND PORK New Zealand’s important place among the meat exporting countries of the world is shown in the latest meat report of the Imperial Economic Committee. It reviews world production, exports and imports for 1936 as compared with previous years. The decline in the total amount of meat entering world trade, which had been in evidence since 1931, was apparently checked in 1936, the report states. Beef exports were heavier than in 1935, mutton and lamb declined, and pig meat showed little change. The downward trend in beef consumption in favour of mutton and pork was arrested last year and world production and consumption are believed to have exceeded the peak reached in 1925-6. Argentina was again by far the largest exporter of beet, shipping 7,817,000 cwt overseas, and Australia, with 2,028,000 cwt, was second. New Zealand for the first time exceeded Uruguay, and the 851,000 cwt shipped probably will make the Dominion the third largest beef exporting country, although this figure may be exceeded by Brazil when final figures are available.

New Zealand remained by far the most important mutton exporting country. The total amount shipped overseas, 3,488,000 cwt, including lamb, was more than double the quantity from Australia, which was the nearest rival. Actually New Zealand’s mutton exports were larger than the total from Australia, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, chief of the other countries concerned in the trade. There was general indication of a swing in favour of lamb at the expense of mutton. In spite of New Zealand’s importance in the export of mutton, the Dominion’s sheep population was only the seventh largest in the world in 1936. Australia, Russia, the United States, India, Argentina and South Africa, all had more sheep. New Zealand maintained its dominant position among pork exporting countries, last year’s shipments of 605,000 cwt being more than twice as large as the totals from the next most important countries, Hungary and Australia. The Empire as a whole was almost self-sufficient as regards pork supplies, importing only 153,000 cwt. The report adds a brief review of the export position for canned meats. This indicates that New Zealand was the Empire’s largest exporter in 1936, although the total of 86,000 cwt shipped is small compared with Argentina’s 1,427,000 cwt., and the totals for Uruguay and Brazil. For the first time, however, New Zealand shipments exceeded those from the United States. Great Britain took 60 per cent of world exports of canned meat last iyear.