COMMERCIAL REPORTS.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume V, Issue 1, 15 July 1912, Page 85

COMMERCIAL REPORTS.

VANCOUVER MARKET. The New Zealand Trade Representative at Vancouver reports as follows on the position of New Zealand produce on the Vancouver market: —

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER

Vancouver, 20th May, 1912. There is at the present time a great deal of New Zealand butter being retailed on this market, apparently genuine “ unfaked ” New Zealand butter, which is distinctly off in flavour, and, so far as we are able to trace this, it comes largely from shipments received from San Francisco. This butter via San Francisco is, as you know, liable to be out of cold storage from six to seven days from the time it is discharged from the Union Steamship Company’s steamer at San Francisco until it is delivered at the wharf here. Distributors here, many of them not accustomed to refrigerated fresh butter, probably treat the F’risco shipments in exactly the same way as shipments coming by direct steamers, taking it into their unrefrigerated warehouses for several days before bricking it up and sending it out to the retailers. The retailers again may have it in their stores several days before it goes into consumers’ hands, and, therefore, before the consumer actually gets to using the butter it may have been out of cold storage for two or three weeks or more. Another point is that this butter, on its way up from San Francisco, is quite likely, we think, to be stowed in holds with other cargo, which may affect the flavour of the butter. Shippers from New Zealand should realize that the routing of butter to this market via San Francisco is at the best a makeshift, and use all their influence to have practically the whole of the refrigerated space on the direct steamers rendered available for butter from that country, if needed. It is far better for Wellington butter to be exposed to the trip up the coast from Wellington to Auckland and then come here direct, than it is to have it shipped to San Francisco and then be subject to delay there and to the journey up this coast to Vancouver in unrefrigerated steamers.

Vancouver, 13th June, 1912

Complaints having been made to me that butter other than New Zealand was being sold on this market in New Zealand wrappers, I immediately instituted inquiries. I interviewed several of the most reliable and honest butter-merchants and requested them to support and aid me by giving their commercial travellers instructions to report to them on wholesale firms or retailers that were selling butter other than New Zealand on this market in New Zealand wrappers. By this means I was fortunate in securing names of firms. ■ I immediately went to the defaulters and had a conversation with them, in which I gave them due warning that in the future, if they persisted in this nefarious practice, I would, of necessity, be forced to take proceedings in Court to expose them and also to protect the good name and quality of New Zealand butter, which has been established on this market. , I must say that I found the merchants very agreeable, and they expressed themselves willing to immediately withdraw the butter ; their excuse being that, there being so great a demand for New Zealand butter, they did not consider that they were doing any harm, seeing they had been disappointed by their orders being short-shipped at the port in New Zealand. They then substituted the best Californian, which they personally thought was equal in value and quality.

I am fully convinced the New Zealand butter is worth cents a pound more than the Californian; the latter contains too much moisture, salt, and colouring. The public who have used New Zealand butter this season will not be gulled by such a watery substitute.

ONIONS. Vancouver, 20th May, 1912. The “ Zealandia ” arrived with over 8,000 crates of New Zealand and Australian onions. These were very welcome, as local stocks were entirely cleared. The Australian onions were very fine hard stock, what is known here as Australian brown variety. The New Zealand onions were not in such good condition. They were a whiter variety resembling both the Globe and the Spanish. The same fault was apparent in these onions— they were packed rather loose. It would be a great advantage to have the crates made the exact size to contain 100 lb. net, and care taken to fill each crate. Merchants complain that they are not getting the proper quantity of onions to the crate. APPLES. Vancouver, 20th May, 1912. - . A shipment of New Zealand apples arrived via San Francisco. Varieties were principally Jonathan, Cox’s Orange, Stunner, Monro’s Favourite, Five Crowns, Rookwood, Russets, and Alfriston. The fruit was inspected very thoroughly by the Provincial Fruit Inspectors, and only a few boxes were condemned on account of pests. The fruit arrived in very good condition, and was well wrapped in tissue paper. Greater care must be given to the question of grading, as many boxes which were marked 2f in. or 3 in. contained quite a percentage of smaller apples, which detracts from ■ the appearance when the fruit is opened up and thereby from the price. Grading-machines similar to those used in the best fruit sections of the United States could be used to advantage. It is absolutely necessary to have cases clearly and distinctively marked in the following manner by the exporters of fruit x for this market. For exam ple : . Jonathan. Size 2f". Grade A. John Smith West burn Orchard New Zealand. Quite a number of growers were represented in the shipment, and each individual had a different idea and method of marking his boxes. Some gave the district where the fruit was grown, variety of apple and size and grade ; others marked their own name on the box, but forgot the variety of apple or size. A little more attention along these lines will be appreciated by the importers, and tend to create a market for New Zealand apples in British Columbia. ' .

THE WOOL MAR KET . London, 2nd July, 1912. The wool sales have commenced. Despite the strike, a full catalogue has been shown to-day. There is a large attendance of Home, Continental, and several American buyers. Competition is very animated, and prospects are favourable. Merino wool |d. per lb., medium crossbreds |d.. fine crossbreds |d., and coarse crossbreds |d. higher than the closing rates of last sale. 152,000 bales of New Zealand wools are catalogued. The estimated value of New Zealand wools at the close of the second series of Colonial wool sales in London on the.4th May, 1912, were as follows: Superior merino Is. to Is. l|d. per lb., medium 9Jd. to ll|d., inferior 7|d. .to 9d., fine crossbreds, all grades, lid. to Is. Ijd., medium crossbreds B|d. to lid., coarse crossbreds 7|d. to 10|d. — High Commissioner’s Report.

THE BACON TRADE. It is contended that there is an encouraging prospect of a very large trade in Australian bacon for the English market, provided that the taste of the consumer be correctly gauged. In connection with this it is pleasing to note that Mr. Joseph E. Prossar, a bacon-curing expert with a European reputation, has arrived in Sydney, under contract with the Government to give tuition at the Hawkesbury College. He states that Australian pigs are as good as need be for the production of the finest quality of bacon on the London market. Mr. Prossar referred to the prices of bacon. He pointed to

the latest quotation of Irish “lean sizable” at 695., 675., and 645., “stout sizable” being quoted at similar figures ; fatter selections were a little less and down to 625. Danish corresponding prices were 655., 645., and 635. The margin between these bacons and the Australian produce ranged from 4s. to 145.. the former being in time of scarcity. New Zealand Government Agent at Sydney.

AUST KALIAN MEAT TRADE. As a result of representations made to the State Government the Cabinet concurred in a proposed change in the system of control in the meat trade. It was decided that all questions regarding abattoirs, saleyards, and meat-marketsin fact, the whole handling of stock from the time it, leaves the train until it reaches the butchers’ shops or the ships’ holds-shall be under one control. It is probable that the Chief Secretary will at an early date make the necessary arrangements for the placing of the whole of this business under a special commission.. New Zealand Government Agent at Sydney.

CHINA AS A MARKET. The great scope which China offers as a market was well illustrated in a recent article which appeared in the London Financier. It is shown that the yearly importations into China amount to not less than £80,000,000, a large sum actually, but representing less than ss. per head of the population of 400,000,000. If China became an import market only on the same relative basis as Japan, its annual buyings would amount to as much as £400,000,000, or about £25,000,000 more than those of the United Kingdom last year, although at present Great Britain heads the world as an importer. If China actually reached the British and Australian import standard, the value of merchandise landed yearly at Chinese ports would amount to the huge sum of £4,800,000,000, or more than the entire trade of the world at the present time. Such a figure is, of course, altogether outside the scope of practical commercial politics for many years to come, but it is distinctly within the scope of China’s potentialities, when the character of its population is taken into consideration.

New freezing-works at San Julian, Rio Gallegos, have commenced work. This concern will only deal with sheep.— N.Z. Correspondent, Buenos Aires.

For the first time in the history of the frozen-meat trade, a special train was des- 1 patched on the night of Wednesday, Bth instant, from London via Folkestone and Boulogne for Rome and Naples, conveying 45 tons of Australian meat. Hitherto the trade has been done by boat to Naples and Genoa. The' train was composed of refrigerator-vans.— Meat Trades Journal.

It appears that Congress has sanctioned the project for the granting of a bounty to the first freezing-works erected in the Province of Entre Rios for the export of frozen meat. The bounty is not to exceed £6,666 in any one year, and will be given for a period of five years. In exchange for the bounty the Government will be given deferred shares, and these are to be redeemed when the works pay a 6-per-cent. dividend, the balance after the payment of this dividend to go to the redemption of the shares.— Zealand Correspondent, Buenos Aires.

A memorandum by Mr. Cooke, Commercial Attache to H.M. Embassy at St. Petersburg, states that, according to the official Commercial Gazette of St. Petersburg of the 14th February, the export of butter from Siberia in 1912, as estimated by the conference of exporters meeting at Omsk on the 28th and 29th January, will be about 72,400 tons, or 5 per cent, increase over the export in 1911. It is also estimated that about 82 per cent, of this total will be exported during the summer season.