Report on the trade in refrigerated beef, mutton and lamb

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1800540760

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-185131

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report on the trade in refrigerated beef, mutton and lamb

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1925

Scope:: vi, 65 Seiten; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter III. Present sources of supply

Collection:: Economics Books

the Commonwealth Government on all meat that was exported and this bounty was renewed the following year. By this means, the industry was enabled to continue, but in spite of it many producers lost heavily. During 1923, Australian beef on Smith- field fell to about 31d. per pound for sides ex-store, and, even at this price, met with a slow sale. In 1924, however, increased buying by Continental countries, including Germany, and especially the large demands of Italy for frozen beef, led to a considerable advance in price. The prospects for 1925 are even brighter for the Australian producer—provided that the Continent continues to buy. The meat trader classifies imported beef in the following order :—(1) South American chilled, (2) best South American frozen, (3) best Australian frozen, (4) best New Zealand frozen. South American frozen is, on the whole, from a better class of cattle ; it is also said to be dressed in a more marketable fashion than beef shipped from Australia and New Zealand. The difficulties of the Queensland producer have already been noted. Apart from uncertain weather conditions, and the distance from the European market, which are irremediable, the directions in which his economic position can best be improved would appear to lie in the development of a system by which supplies would: be spread over the whole year, by means of extensive irrigation in the producing areas, by schemes of fodder conserva- tion, or by greater cold-storage accommodation for the meat, in the extension of railway facilities in producing areas remote from the coast, and, finally, in the improvement of the quality of the herds and of their rate of maturity.* Considerable quantities of Australian beef are sold in the provincial towns in Great Britain, but, in Smithfield, it occupies a minor position. Indeed, it is essential that Queensland should ship chilled and not frozen beef to this country if she is not to remain at a disadvantage in British markets compared with South America.t To prophesy is to invite disaster, but just as refrigeration made the meat trade possible, so some other invention may enable Australian beef to be placed on our markets with the regularity and of the quality of the South American article. Australians are fully alive to the difficulties and are sagerly seeking a solution. Much capital and a closer settlement of the vast areas of the Continent will be necessary to meet developments if, and when, a solution is found. As this would imply a flow of settlers from this country, the development of the Australian chilled beef industry has an important Imperial aspect. ~ (b) Mutton and Lamb.—Australia is pre-eminently a sheep countrv and though. in 1921. the total number of sheep in the * See also para. 15, ‘ Report of Imperial Economic Committee.” Cmd. 2499. 1925. | + See also paragraph 13, “ Report of Inter-Departmental Committee mm Meat Supplies.” Cmd. 456. 1919.

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