FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 49, 3 April 1914, Page 11

FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

THE LONDON MARKET. DEMAND FOB. NEW ZEALAND MUTTON. AN INSTRUCTIVE INTERVIEW. An interesting visitor to Christchur.cli is Mr G. C. Kean, a director of the great London meat-importing firm of W. Weddel and Co., Ltd., which handles a very large proportion of the frozen produce* exported by the Dominion to Great Britain. Weddel and Co. are practically a world-wide firm, and Mr Kean is able to speak of the frozen meat trade in every part of the globe from first-hand knowledge. A representative of THE SUN had a very instructive talk with him yesterday, and learned a good deal about the marketing of'' frozen meat in London, of which New Zealanders —and even the exporters themselves —know very little. A DAY AT SMITHFIELD. Asked to describe exactly, what takes place when a cargo of New Zealand meat readies London, Mr Kean gave a very interesting summary of the various handlings and processes to which it is subjected be'fore it finally finds its way into the homes of the consumers; Most of the meat, he said, is sent direct from the boat into the stores of the Port of London Authority and otHer "up town" stores, although a good deal is also despatched to various distributing centres, such as Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, Sheffield, and others, in insulated railway vans which run to the ship's side? By sending meat in this way direct to the distributing centres, London charges are avoided, and, the meat brought more closely to the ultimate place of consumption. The meat which is so despatched is chiefly that bought by the great multiple stores, which are now such a prominent feature of Brit: ish trade. - The firms owning these stores operate in many towns, and have hundreds of shops. At the same time, the bulk of the meat landed in London goes to the Smithfield market, and ' from there it is distributed through London as required. This applies particularly to fiaest qualities of New Zealand meat, the second qualities going mainly to the provinces, which as a rule demand meat of a quality rather plainer and heavier than that which is consumed in London. The meat is taken to Smithfield in the very early hours of the morning, and is ready for the actual marketing at 4 a.m., when the selling usually begins. The bulk of the selling takes place between 4 a.m. an3 v S a.m. The retailers buy just what meat they think will fill their immediate needs, and take'it away to their shops in carts. The. markets are open from midnight until 1 p.m. from Mondays to Thursdays, and until 4 p.m. on Fridays. There is very little selling on Saturdays, as most of the retailers have already laid in their stock. In the winter they buy their Saturday's meat chiefly on Thursday, and in summer they buy on, Friday. By this arrangement they leave enough time for more or less efficient thawing of the meat before it is actually sold to the consumers. The biggest buyers are the owners of the multiple stores, who purchase not chiefly for their own shops, but in some cases also have stalls at Smithfield, where they supply the small retailers. NEW ZEALAND PROSPECTS. The prospects of \£he New Zealand meat trade, Mr were very favourable indeed. There had been considerable talk of the opening up of markets in the United States, but in his opinion England would always be the' principal market for New Zealand produce. In America the greatest demand was for the smaller and leaner article. For that reason there would be a bigger call there for Australian and River Plate meat., Tlrte would leave the London market • mtfre clear for the New Zealand product. Indirectly the Dominion benefits greatly by this consequent reduction in shipments to the United Kingdom. The quality of New Zealand meat was such that it must always command comparatively high •prices.

SOMETHING TO LEARN. New Zealand lambs, Mr Kean continued, still held pride of place in London, but so far as mutton was concerned the Argentine ran the Dominion very closely. River P*late meat reached London- in excellent condition. In the first place it was better butchered, and in this respect there was room for a great deal of improvement in the Do : minion. After the killing it was better attended to, and was "more carefully handled in every way.. The consequence w T as that when the meat was placed on the market at Smithfield it was ever so much more attractive in appearance than some of the New Zealand mutton. In this respect Argentine mejit had shown a very great improvement after the advent of the Yankees, who applied to it the methods they hail so long adopted in their own land. New Zea'landers could very profitably take a leaf from the book of the Argentine exporters. BONED BEEF. A very in tltf) trade of late yearsXMr Kean continued, was that in boned bull and cow beef, of which a good deal was now being exported from the Dominion. Owing to the high prices of meat generally, there had arisen a demand in some quarters for a cheaper article, and this was where the boned beef came in. The principal markets were Liverpool and Glasgow. In these centres there is a very considerable demand for minced and sausage meats. The beef of bulls and medium cows was suitable for these purposes, although it could not, of course, compete on the open market with the beef of the best New Zealand fat stock. This '' sausage'' beef " is boned in the Dominion and exported to Great Britain in pieces, and often also in quarters. The result was that bulls and lean, cows, which previously were worth only what their hides would bring, had now a .distinct market value. The demand for this kind of meat, he

held, had been of the greatest possible value to the Dominion. SMALL CARCASES IN DEMAND. It had been very noticeable of late years, Mr Kean went on to say, that small carcases were more and more in demand. In the poorer districts the housewives of London were very keen on having a whole joint, but they .could not afford to pay a big price for it. A small joint was therefore more acceptable to them than a large one. The sale of meat from costers' carts was now almost unknown, and the elimination of this feature of the trade was a very good thing, as it gave the respectable butchers a chance to live. At the same time, in the poorer quarters of the city, there were many shops which sold their meat by Dutch auction on Saturday evenings.. A joint would bo held up by the salesman and a price put on it. If this-priee were not forthcoming he would reduce it a little, and so on until he had a bidder. He had often beeu surprised at the prices at which this meat was thus disposed of. Of course it paid these small butchers better to dispose of the meat they had left on their hands at such prices rather than to keep it over Sunday, and run the risk of its deterioration. The housewives who attended these salesdisplayed a very fine knowledge of the market, and knew exactly the proper moment to buy. It was quite a unique method of selling meat. THE BY-PRODUCTS. Another interesting question on which Mi- Kean touched was that of the export of what he called '' offal,'' or the by-products of the meat' industry proper. Every year, he said, there was imported into Great Britain from the Argentine a very large quantity of sheeps' hearts, livers,. tongues, etc. These were very attractively got up, and had a good market. The greater proportion of these articles went to the North of England, but a good deal was also sold in London to eating-houses and such establishments. The goods came in frozen like ordinary meat. There was a certain trade for such products from New Zealand, but it had not much prospect of development. The cost of labour in the Dominion was much greater than it was in the Argentine. EXIT THE UNITED STATES. Dealing more in detail with the United States trade, Mr Kean said that the eventual disappearance of the States as a source of supply to the British market had been anticipated for many years past; but the actual cessation of exports had come more suddenly arid dramatically than most people looked for. Whereas seven years ago (1907) the United States was the largest supplier of meat to the United Kingdom (in the form of beef and live cattle), the weight of the import from that source being then equivalent to 231,599 tons, last year only about 800 quarters of beef and 10,093 head of cattle arrived, representing in all only 3316 tons. ' At the end of 1913, the position was that the United States had become a free importer of Australian and South American meat, receiving shipments into both Western and Eastern ports, no less than 6621 tons having been actually re-exported from England in order to meet the requirements of the New York and Boston markets. Several direct shipments had been made from the Argentine Republic, and arrangements were in progress for placing an increased number of steamers on that route. Besides numerous small shipments made from Australia to San Francisco, two direct steamers had already been fixed to carry frozen meat from Australia to New York, and other similar shipments would doubtless follow. It was interesting to look at the figures for the last few years, as indicative of the very rapid decline of the United States export trade. Not very long ago the beef imported from the Argentine was nil, whereas the imports from the States ran into millions of tons. Details for the last six years are as follow, the figures representing cwts. of chilled beef: —

export trade of the States had dwindled almost to the vanishing point, that of the Argentine had increased by leaps and bounds. The demand for beef for home consumption in the States is fast exceeding the supply, and a great market is opening up there for foreign beef. OUTLOOK HOPEFUL. In conclusion, Mr Kean said that the prospects of the New Zealand trade with England were very bright. So long as the excellent quality of New Zealand mutton was maintained, it must always demand high prices in London, and with the clearing from the market of the Australian and River Plate meat now being diverted to the States, prospects would be even more favourable. The, one thing that the exporters of the Dominion must bear in mind was the necessity for careful handling of the meat and attractiveness of "get-up." In that respect alone was there any element of inferiority in the New Zealand article, and it was a subject well, worthy of the, serious attention of all connected with the trade.

United St;ite.«. Argentine. 1908 . . . 1,432,1 12 1,207,400 1909 . . 850,805 1,862,612 1910 .. 477,147 5,710,747 1911 .. 174,350 3,753,140 1912 . . 6,111 3,879,580 1913 1,462 5,248,004 It will thus be seen that whereas the