ENGLISH EGG MARKET

Waipa Post, Volume 38, Issue 2286, 28 March 1929, Page 2

ENGLISH EGG MARKET

GROWING HOME PRODUCTION. A recent shipment of New Zealand eggs to the Homeland resulted in a loss to the shippers. A strong section of the poultry breeders of this country have long advocated the development of an overseas market for our surplus eggs, but it seems to those who are cognisant with the position in the United Kingdom that, in endeavouring to do this, the poultrymen would be up against an infinitely greater proposition than the producers of most other lines of primary produce.

The British Ministry of Agriculture is«making a spirited effort to increase the production of poultry and eggs in the Homeland. In this connection much interest attaches to the fourth World Poultry Congress and Exhibition, scheduled to be held in the Crystal Palace during the summer of 1930. Experts from all parts of the world will be there to tell the English farmers what can be done, but it seems that they are already awakening to the possibilities of the industry, in which there has been a big expansion over the past decade.

In England and Wales the production of poultry and eggs has gone up steadily during the last 14 or 15 years. For example, there were less than 20,000,000 head of poultry in England and Wales in 1913, while at the, time of the last census (1927) the figure was upward of 43,000,000. Egg production is also on the up grade, the figures for 1913 being 1,270,000,000, compared with 2,200,000,000 in 1927.

j An astonishing proportion of England's eggs come from Lancashire. The producers there can teach the business to anyone in the world. In that rain stricken county, poultrymen grow rich, and the middlemen are practically eliminated as a result of co-operation. Modern methods are practised in the care of the poultry, and the ratio of production to expenditure on food and general maintenance of the birds is considerably greater than that for any other county in the country. There is every possibility that Lancashire's success will be emulated in other parts of England, where there is ample scope for expansion, and in this lies sufficient cause for a cautious policy in regard to initial expenditure by the overseas producer who would try to open up a market for such a tricky product.

There is, of course, the other side. In 1927 England imported 25,000 tons of dead birds, the value being nearly £3,000,000. These were dead birds. No reckoning is taken of those which came over alive. Eggs were imported in vast quantities to the value of nearly £16,000,000. The greatest number came from Norway, the Irish Free State, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Russia, in the order named. The total imports of poultry and eggs for the period must have amounted to approximately £20,000,000.

Those interested in the better and more intensive farming movement in England contend that if the English farmer were alive to his business there would be no need for importations. The figures for the period ended 1927 show that he is already moving toward greater production, and the capturing of a greater share in his ofwn market. Whether it will be profitable for New Zealand farmers to spend much time and money in an endeavour to capture a corner of the English market for themselves is a question for much thought, especially when the big hold of the Continental countries al- I ready enumerated is considered. New Zealand's distance from the market, when compared with the other producing countries also presents a big problem. A loss was registered on the last—and incidentally the first—shipment of any size sent Home from these shores. The way of the outsider who would develop a corner of the English market is by no means an easy one.