FOREWORD. 
This Report gives an account of the trade in refrigerated 
seef, mutton and lamb, a trade which has grown considerably in 
recent years and now supplies practically one half of the require- 
ments of Great Britain. It suggests that the British meat 
producer is facing a competition which is rapidly changing and 
intensifying. A few years ago, he had the market to himself in 
supplying the better-class trade and in providing for the needs 
of rural districts and many provincial towns. This is no longer 
the case. He now has to compete with powerful organisations 
which bring a more or less standardised, if refrigerated, product 
from overseas to the very heart of rural Britain. Knowledge of 
the marketing and distributing machinery at the disposal of 
imported meat is now a natural background for any study of 
the marketing and distribution of home-produced meat supplies. 
To such a study, the brief survey which this Report affords may, 
therefore, be regarded as a preliminary contribution. 
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