THE COLONIST PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1910 THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12730, 28 February 1910, Page 2

THE COLONIST PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1910 THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

> Messrs W. Wedded and Company's ■ review on the frozen meat trade .for ; the yctar 1909 ds to. hand. It Las ■been recognised for some time past, '; say Messrs Weddel, that few' large trades, if any, are subject to more 1 rapid cliangesi than the trade, in frozen [ meats. The year just closed, in. reI. spect of the contrasts it presents to ■ its predecessor, furnishes a fresh iIJ is- ; tration of this view. Not only as re- | ! gards the fluctuations in values, '.*ut even more markedly in respect oi he general conditions of supply and le--1 mand, the bourse of events -in, tb ise ! successive years has widely diffei id. Whereas 1908 was charcterised b. • a great shortage in imports leading to a general rise in prices, 1909 witnej ;ad \ a material expansion in receipts, \ ith an all-round reduction in eel ng • values.' Tho contrast was, pcx-hi ps, ' most vivid in the case of colonial axports, the important decreases rep irted a year ago having been followec by unusually large increases dn the ] ast year, and prices having fallen bj as I must as 16 j per cent on average. The : detailed imports show that rece pts I wJiich practically amounted to tw • or three months' sxipply of Australa ian ) meats were dropped out in 1908 ; md ' that sufficient was imported in, 909 to furnish from three to five mor >hs' l additional supply. Under such cc lditions it was manifestly impossibl > to • secure anything approaching coi fcin- ' uity of policy in marketing colonia arrivals, or to avoid wido fluetuatioi 3 in

selling values. A few years ago ■ uch conditions would have produced s >mething like a crisis in the trade ; but of late, and especially during DOS), the steadying influence of the < omparativG,ly regular arrivals of mv ;ton and beef from South America opei vted in the direction of governing to : Dme extent the course of prices, not mly for Argentine but for all classes of frozen meat. Importations of live • cattle and sheep also, from the Ui '.ted States and Canlada, have continu< 1 to shrink in number. In 1909 there /ere 61,789 fewor cattle and 70,769 i wer ■ sheep landed in the United Kin{ lorn from abroad than in 1908. A si oiig agitation has been, maintained to secure the re-opening of the Ai ■■;en- • tine ports for the. cjxport of cattle and sheep to the United Kingdom, bu ■■ no I success has attended these efforts. The broad facts of the situation as reg rds the supply of prime meat now ass red ■ for the English market under : tost economical conditions, by means of tho freezing and chilling proce ses, seem to have demonstrated cleiarl? the > futility of seeking to re-establis a ' trade which, though it served. a v. >ful purpose in a past generation, pos 3ssed not a fenv drawbacks. The Goa vrnment has offered no encouragemei ; to the agitation ; and the London Cl im- : ber of Commerce quite recently de lined to support a petition to Parlian ;nt, though it was put forward by one of its own trade sections. H >me and Continental supplies of meat -\ -ere unexpectedly heavy at irregular ir tervals duriug tho year. . "It is ah ays easie/r," says the review, "to estimate closely the arrivals due to reach this country from America and Austral isia in any given month than it is to guess, even approximately, the quantities likely to be sent to market by Home or Conitinantal farmers during the like period. [Precise information in the case of oversea shipments is obtained weekly by traders, a month in advance of arrivals. In the other case nothing beyond gesier-al expectations can be formed until the meat is actually on the markets. Despite occasional spells of over supply, however, shipments of mutton' and beef .from the Continent in 1909 in aggregate fell, : short of the. total for 1908 by 2994 : tonsj T)ut it is estimated that the 1909 marketings of; Home-fed beef and mutton wcire about. 7700'' 'tons heavier than in 1908." The quiet but steady improvement in the general trad© of the country during 1909, especially in employment amongst the working classes, was reflected in the satisfactory : consumptive demand for frozen meats ; i but the addition- of 47,217 tons to the i available supply was too much to adI mit of prices being maintained at the j high level of 1908, when importations were relatively short. While .shippers "and importers had an unprofitable yeaaowing to high cost prices and declining sale values, it was reported that retailers did well in Sail parts of the; country — in contra-distinction to the general experiences of 1908. The consumer was favoured at the expense of the producer; -and had it not been for the high prices ruling for wool, tallow, hides and sheep skins, shippers' losses •would have been much greater, j Altogether some 1,197,843. tons of beef and 679J410 tons of mutton and lamb were consumed in the United King- , doin during 1909, a supply which works out at 59.8 lbs of the former and 28.9 lbs of the latter per head of the: population. Of the total hupply 23.3 i per cent consisted of frozen meat, 7.6 per cent/of chilled beef ; and 6.6 of livecattle and sheep and Continental* meat. The arrivals of New Zealand/ mutton showed an increase 5f 10 per

cent over tho previous yenr^ and it was thereforo in full supply during tho greater portion of the year. The. increase of 621,753 carcases of New Zealand lambs over the 1908 total proved to be very much more- than the market could profitably absorb, especially as an unusually large proportion, came forward to numerous competing agents for sale after arrival. Conferences of the principal importers in May, Juno and July failed to evolve any means of preventing the collapse, which was inevitable. Dealing with the prospects for 1910, Messrs Weddcll and Company say that the general improvement in trade throughout tho United Kingdom during the past three months h;as already resulted in a freer consumption of meat. It is to be hoped that this improvement will develop as tho year advances, because there is every prospect that the markets of the United Kingdom will have to absorb practically the whole output of the freezing works of the world. Supplies from all sources ©xco.pt North America are likely to increase, especially frozen mutton and lamb from Australia and New Zealand, and chilled beef from the, Eiver Plate. Quotations for all descriptions having now reached a comparatively flow level, the better consumptive demand which may bo expected should bring about somo recovery .in values generally.