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 requirements
 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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