BEEF FOR BRITAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 180, 2 August 1932, Page 5

BEEF FOR BRITAIN

ARGENTINE’S ADVANTAGES PROBLEMS FOR DOMINIONS HEAVY LEEWAY TO MAKE UP. AUCKLAND, July 30. “The cable message from London published yesterday, in which an English expert predicts that it will be five or ten years before any of the meatproducing Dominions can seriously compete with the Argentine in the markets of Great Britain, either in the quantity or quality of chilled meat exported, is a fairly accurate conclusion,’’ said the principal of a leading firm of New Zealand meat exporters yesterday. “The quality of Empire stock has not made any notable improvement in recent years and very little money has been spent on importing good breeding strains,” he said. “The Argentine, Uruguay and Brazil, however, have continuously applied themselves to developing and improving both the livestock and the conditions which would make for improvement of their beef products. The Argentine, in particular, has of late years made great strides in producing the so-called choice baby beef which commands a premium in London. “It is difficult for a New Zealander to appreciate the tremendous amount of leeway the Empire has got to make up if our beef exports are going to make any impression against the steady flow of Argentine beef products,” he continued. “The Argentine has had a wonderful start and the quantity of chilled beef of superior quality sent from that country to Great Britain is in the neighbourhood of 600,000 tons a year. We have got to build up practically from zero.” The Empire’s Problem. Rhodesia and Australia, he said, were the two principal Empire countries possessing the best facilities for the production of beef, but neither country was at present able', nor seemed likely to be in the near future, to ship beef regularly to Great Britain all the year round. There had been experimental shipments from Australia and South Africa of chilled beef and especially of sterilised beef, none of which, however, could be called successful. Several shipments of live cattle were made each year from South Africa to Liverpool, but the animals were not of consistent quality. Rhodesia’s drawback was the long train journey to Capetown, which occupied at least two days, and the longer sea journey to Britain. Both Australia and South Africa depended upon seasonal rains for fattening their herds and neither country had yet done on an adequate scale the necessary fencing and dipping on which to lay a sound basis for cattle-farming and the breeding-up of their stock. Some areas of Queensland had decided possibilities, but the seasonal rainfall, tick and also the distances made it difficult to secure the necessary numbers of high-quality cattle at. any one port —so essential to successful handling of a highly-pcrishable product. Resources of the Argentine. By comparison, the Argentine possessed tens of thousands of square miles of perfectly flat plain, with a rich alluvial soil covering a porous water-bearing sub-strata, which supplied the roots of the alfalfa grass and ensured rich, luscious feed all the year round. The Argentine was not subject to droughts or serious cattle pests and tlye magnificent inland watering of the River Plate enabled the beef to be brought quickly and cheaply to the huge freezing works and shipped fr|n some of the most modern docks in the world by fast steamers making the voyage to London in 17 or 18 days. By killing some 3000 to 4000 head of cattle a day in these large plants, it was possible to fill several hatches every 24 hours, close them up and control the atmosphere accurately. It was impracticable, the exporter added, to collect chilled beef in small quantities at. a variety of ports, as was

done in New Zealand with frozen beef, mutton and lamb. Brazil a Growing Factor. “Brazil has immense areas of good cattle country and is becoming a factor in the chilled beef trade with Bri tain,” he said. “But with Brazil, as with the meat-growing countries of the British Empire, the rainfall problem makes her business seasonal, and she is unable to meet the Argentine in serious competition as far as best-quality beef is concerned. She is a serious competitor with the Empire’s frozen beef trade, however, because she is selling a good-eating quality of ehilh'd beef, distinctly superior to any frozen meat on the market, at prices von’ little above the cost of our frozen article. “As far as New Zealand beef is con corned, the position is somewhat difficult. Wo have country that can pro duce cattle good enough for bestquality chilled beef, but it is a question whether that land would not be worth far more to the owner as da’rv ing land. Now Zealand, of course, must, continue to use cattle to keep her sheep country in order but after eat tie have boon used for crushing, thov are not suitable for chillers when fat. and this is a powerful economic difficultv in the wav of providing choice chilled beef for the English market. As far as inferior chilled beef is eon corned. New Zealand would moot strong competition from Brazil and South Africa, both of which have voyv cheap labour, cheap land and onlv half the sea carriage. There is onlv one other area in the British Empire that has good possibilities and that is Nigeria. Probably more will be hoard <1 that country in the years tn come.”