EXPORT OF PIG MEAT

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21082, 8 April 1940, Page 6

EXPORT OF PIG MEAT

New Zealand having failed to convert its pig meat export trade from predominant pork to predominant bacon, it has done the next best thing and persuaded the British Government to lift the restriction on the export of pork. The decision has been received with relief by New Zealand farmers, and it may now be expected that the serious decline in the total export of pig meat may be arrested. Perhaps it is not too much to hope that New Zealand will realise the advantage of substantially increasing pig production. In the final analysis, Britain may need a bulk of foodstuffs rather than a careful selection, and the Dominion owes the duty to supply that need to the * best of its ability. The request to New Zealand producers to concentrate upon the production of bacon rather than of pork was perfectly reasonable from Britain's point of view. Bacon was more useful to her than pork. But the New Zealand producers have apparently found that it is easier and more profitable to export porkers. Maturing pigs to the baconer stage requires more labour and the purchase of supplementary fodder —both scarce and expensive commodities. Pigs can be raised to the porker stage on open range with much less attention to their care and feeding. One man can tend many more porkers than baconers, and this in a country where pig production has never been taken as seriously as it should be is an important consideration. The result of the restriction was, in any case, that pig production fell away disastrously and something had to be done to arrest the decline.

Britain still expects New Zealand to at least maintain the proportion of bacon to pork that obtained before the war, and it is to be hoped every effort will be made to meet that wish. There is no reason why, even if the export of porkers increases largely, there should be any reduction in the export of baconers. There are certain districts and certain farms so equipped and managed that the production of bacon can be made to pay better than the export of pork. In such circumstances the additional price of bacon more than compensates for the extra cost and labour. Pig production can still be Increased enormously and more quickly than any other line of primary produce, because pigs breed prolifically and mature more quickly than any other animals of like importance. New Zealand can benefit itself and the Empire’s war effort generally by giving serious attention to pig husbandry.