AMERICAN BEEF TRUST.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144134, 2 July 1913, Page 7

AMERICAN BEEF TRUST.

A “SQUEEZE” IN ARGENTINA. Do the very much increased imports, to Smithfield Market, of Argentine beef, prove the existence of an underselling campaign by the American Beef Trust, designed to capture the moat trade of Argentina, the biggest beefexporting country? Some Smithfield salesmen answer this vital question in the affirmative. “There is a general opinion in the market,” said a salesman on May 6, “that the American companies are, and always have been, seeking to get control of our market. I do not say that they have succeeded; I do 1 not even go so far at to say that they are likely to succeed. But I do not doubt that tire attempt has been made. “Why should they be pouring supplies into the market to bo sold at knock-down prices just when the Argentine cattle are so scarce and dear? These are the figures of the total shipments of boof for the first four months of this year, and those of the corresponding period of last year:— 1912 1,295,000 cwt 1913 1,440,0G0cwt “The figures for the weekly imports of beef from the .Argentine are still more startling;— Week ending April 11 60,000 cwt Week ending April 17 60,000 „ Week ending April 24 150,000 „ Week ending May 1 100,000',, “It should be remembered that nearly 80 per cent, of the foreign beef coming into this country is shipped from the Argentine. It is evident that tile firms who are pouring into our market beef from South America in. this fashion are losing a lot of money; What is their object in doing tills? “Is it that they want to squeeze the other companies out of the Argentine? If they succeed in doing this, it will be a very serious matter, for that is now the only country left which exports beef on a large scale. The United States has ceased to be an exporting country; Canada and Australia send little, and Europe as a whole wants more than she grows.”