MEAT SHIPMENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20104, 24 March 1928, Page 22 (Supplement)

MEAT SHIPMENTS

ARGENTINE EXPORTS The imports of mutton, lambs, and beef into the United Kingdom from the Argentine during the past four years were as under:—

Mutton and lamb, it will be noted, do not figure to any large extent in the markets, at any rate not to the same extent as New Zealand mutton and lamb, but frozen and chilled beef, and particularly chilled beef, constitute an important factor in the market.

Beef, it will be noted, shows a substantial increase on the year, but it is .just possible that there may be a slight shrinkage in the future. Now that the meat war is ended, the contending parties will naturally want to see some recovery in prices, and the easiest way of bringing that about is by curtailing supplies. When the parties were lighting one another they were flooding the market with supplies, and must now take the opposite course. Argentine chilled beef will always dominate the market, because it is favoured by the masses, whereas mutton and lamb will be more or less luxury foods. Farming in the. Argentine is mostly carried on on a large scale and there is one large land company operating there that owns more than a million acres.

According to Barclay’s Bank, for generations past very close commercial relations have existed between Argentina and Great Britain. Tn 1923, although the pre-war proportions had not been fully restored, the United Kingdom was again at the head of the list. This position, was maintained in 19?4, and only reversed by a small fraction in 1925. In 1926, However, owing to the serious disturbances to British trade caused by the general strike and

Beef Year, Mutton Lamb (qrs) 1927 . 2,560.060 3.314,418 6,753,270 1926 2,329,213 2,119,574 6,449,783 192;j 2,592,393 2,689,054 5,877,697 1924 ’ 2,599,200 2,082,900 6,334,500