OUTLOOK SATISFACTORY

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1935, Page 6

OUTLOOK SATISFACTORY

DOMINION PORK EXPORT EFFECT OF LONDON NEGOTIATION. NEED FOR INCREASING BACONERS. MR. COATES OUTLINES POSITION. By Telegraph—Press Association, Wellington, Last Night. “Pork, including baconers for curing in the United Kingdom, was the product to which we attached very special importance and it received long and close discussion with United Kingdom Ministers and officials,” Said the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates to-night, referring to the London discussions. “For the present and for the near future the outlook is on the whole quite satisfactory. “It is true that the bacon position in the United Kingdom has been causing some concern there from the viewpoint that prices have been unduly high by comparison with the low level ruling before action was taken following upon the United Kingdom bacon commission inquiry. Even now, however, prices are not as high as in 1929. “The United Kingdom Government has indicated that it favours .allowing an increase of bacon imports so that the cut imposed on Danish imports will not be so severe as it has been. One purpose that they have in mind is that prices would be somewhat reduced. “The prospect therefore is that for all bacon and baconer pigs prices in the United Kingdom may be slightly less than they have recently been. It is true also that for porkers from New Zealand and other overseas countries the United Kingdom market is and will continue to be regulated but the volume that can be taken from New Zealand’baconers will not at present be reduced below what we estimate we will be able to supply to the end of 1936. “From this it will be seen that the problem that may engage the attention of farmers is that of turning their attention to producing more baconers and less porkers and solving the problem of converting surplus porkers into bacon“As one aspect of this we have been making inquiry into the recent developments in pig feeding and suggestions will shortly reach New Zealand as to methods of economic feeding which we hope will be helpful. “Looking further ahead, and much as we might wish it otherwise, a policy of facing a regulated market or in its place a tariff on all pork products, baconers as well as porkers, cannot be ignored. Supplies can expand very rapr idly and, while expansion from New Zealand can be expected, it has been made clear that on the present indications the rate of expansion shown may severely disturb the market. "We are entitled to emphasise and have emphasised that foreign bacon supplies to-day account for a large proportion of the imports and on this score we can, I believe, look for a satisfactory increase to ourselves, but the limits of the United Kingdom market in absorbing increases at reasonable prices must always be kept in mind.”