RETAILING OF MEAT.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 20 November 1923, Page 1

RETAILING OF MEAT.

AN OBVIOUS FRAUD. Two outstanding features of the British meat trade are established by the interim report of the Linlithgow Report, viz.:— - /'The retail butchers’ net jiercent.Tge of profit him definitely increased in comparison with pre-war days. Thia wes admitted to- have resulted from the cmi trol of prices during war conditions. “The increased preference of the consuming public for certain joints and the limited demand for others, as a result of which only 60 to 70 per cent, of the carcass can be sold above cost."

This iiic’cnsed demand for prime joints is partly attributable io the high wages of the war period. The need for a “utilise the cheaper joints” campaign is strongly urged. Addressing itself to various aspects of the meat trade, the committee says: — Since 1900 the net increase in the numbers of cattle in Great Britain is less than 1 per cent. Pigs have increased by less than 3 per cent. Sheep have declined nearly 25 per cent. “This heavy decline has been attributed to the effect of the control of prices by the Ministry of Food.” It is clear also that the increase in the population of Great Britain and Ireland has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in the flocks and herds. The retailing of frozen meat is “relatively more remunerative” than the sale of the fresh-killed article, and witnesses freely stated that many retailers sell imported meat as home-killed in order to get the higher price. Summing up its conclusions, the committee recommended The selling of fat stock by auction in preference to sale by private treaty. There is evidence that butchers and dealers frequently form ‘rings’ at auction sales. This stifles competition and is detrimental to the producer.” Fat stock should be sold by weight, as ascertained before sale. The goods rates on chilled and frozen meat are lower than those on fresh-killed supplies. “As the interests of the railway companies are bound up with the progress of agriculture, the companies may be expected further to reduce the existing charges (on live stocks) at the earliest practicable moment.” Local authorities should be invited to reduce slaughter house tolls. The curient rale of the salesmen’s commission at Smithfield for handling meat—“almost exactly double the pre-war charge”—is “greater than is now justified having regard to the fall in the cost of Jiving.” The committee says: “Witnesses have informed us that stalls in the market (Smithfield) have changed hands at about £12.000, and one witness mentioned a figure as high as £20,000.” “For the sale of chilled beef as homeproduced there is no justification; it is an obvious fraud on the public. It is <iesirable that means should, if possible, he devised to mark effectively either the imported or the home-prodpeed article, or both. The consumer ha® the right to know what he is buying.*’