DECLINE OF MEAT VALUES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19512, 10 June 1933, Page 16

DECLINE OF MEAT VALUES

DOMINIONS BLAMED. OPINION OF ARGENTINA INTERESTS Placing the whole of the blame for the present depreciation of frozen meat prices on the extraordinary large supplies placed in the Home market, the chairman of the Smithfield and Argentine Meat Company, Sir James Caird, reviewed the Argentine meat trade position at the annual meeting of the company held in London at the end of March. He said that the most important occurrence in connection with the meat trade since the company had last met was the fixing at the Ottawa Conference of quotas for produce imported into the United Kingdom. The relations between the British Government and the meat companies connected with the Argentine, he said, were most friendly, and the companies had done, and he was sure would do, everything they reasonably could do to ensure the satisfactory working of the . quota system. The Quotas. He continued: As an instance of the difficulty of fixing on a particular year which would be a fair all-round basis for a quota, I would instance the Australian and New Zealand mutton and lamb shipments for three years ended June 30, 1930, 1931, and 1932 (the Ottawa basic . year), which were as follows: Year. Year. Year, ended, ended, ended. Australia and 30/6/30. 30/6/31. 30/6/32. N.Z. mutton Tons. Tons. Tons. and lamb 191,000 208,958 269,787 It is now a well-known fact that this enormous additional quantity of 60,000 tons of mutton and lamb shipped from Australia and New Zealand was the cause of the serious depreciation in our mutton and lamb prices last year. There is a question that arises in our minds: Is our own mutton and lamb market to be flooded with supplies of mutton and lamb from Australia and New Zealand under a quota based on a year of abnormal shipments? The chairman added that Argentine exports to Great Britain and the Continent were smaller in 1932 than 1931, and the prices to producers in Argentina were lower and had fluctuated a great deal. The balance sheet showed that the company’s profit had been a reasonable one. "The real fact is,” the chairman continued, “that we are all suffering from the world-wide depression, and commodity prices in Argentina have followed the present world-wide trend. What has been lost sight is that this drop in cattle prices has been offset by the reduced value of the by-products resulting from the slaughter of the animals. “For instance, to mention only the | two principal by-products of the steer —the hide and the fat; during the last five years the price for hides has fallen about 73 per cent., and fats about 58 per cent. These falls in values alone amount to well over £3 a steer. The fall in the price of canned meat over the same period is no less than 47/ per cent.” The chairman forecast a profit for 1933 and added that, quota or no quota, good Argentine chilled beef was always wanted.