PIG PRODUCTION

Waikato Independent, Volume XLI, Issue 3891, 13 August 1941, Page 2

PIG PRODUCTION

BACON OR PORK FOR EXPORT OUTLOOK FOR 'SEASON In an interview with a representative of the “Waikato Independent’’ when asked about the market prospects for pigs this season, Mr W. A. Phillips, chairman of directors of the New Zealand Co-operative Pig Marketing Association, stated that up to the present there is still no prospect of an export market for bacon pigs. Britain has, however, agreed to take our porker pigs in a carcase weight range of (50 to 120 lbs.

As yet there is no indication of quantity or price, but it is confidently anticipated that our. own Government will continue Hie commandeer at f.o.b. for all porkers killed in excess of local requirements. Should this transpire and the price fixed approximate that of last year, this would afford a stabilising .factor for the local bacon market. ‘

Failing this and in spite of any practical application of theoretical forms of planned production, supply and demand must inevitably •create wider points of market fluctuation. When the Government lifted the exportable weight of pork to 120 lbs. producers’ marketing difficulties were in any case greatly relieved.

The local market prefers lightweight baconers of from 121 to 140 lbs. so with an exportable top weight for pork of 120 lbs., great flexibility is afforded in catering for one or other of these markets at short notice. Buttermilk fasteners who in past years were mainly catered for by exporters and whose production would approximate upwards of 50,000 baconers annually will now be forced on to the local market for an outlet for their produce. While this must have a bearing on local market conditions, this quantity is less than one-quarter of local market requirements. “Although under existing conditions,” concluded Mr Phillips, “one would be presumptive and even foolish to' attempt a market forecast as a lead to producers in the preferential production of pork or bacon pigs, on the assumption that the commandeer price is continued for pork, in a spirit of mutual helpfulness I am willing to give it as my opinion that at all killing points, which are adjacent to curing factories catering for city trade, baconers to December 31st are likely to be in good demand, while in the case of other normal killing points from which the transport and other handling charges on carcases as opposed to the delivery of live, pigs to curing factories would be competitively uneconomic, producers would be well advised not to take their pigs above porker weights.” t