A NEW COMPETITOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2760, 8 February 1910, Page 2

A NEW COMPETITOR.

VENEZUELA ENTERS THE LISTS. A GREAT CATTLE COUNTRY. It lias been a matter of gome difficulty to obtain any information with regard to the new meat industry in Venezuela, the inception of which I sent (writes a correspondent of the Wellington “Post”) a paragraph about a few weeks ago. The Venezuelan Consulate in London is not very well equipped with information about Venezuela,' and it was necessary to make quite a number of calls before getting any substantial facts that would* be likely to be of much value. The industry of exporting dead meat is quite new to the northern part of South America. Hitherto it has been confined to the Argentine and •Uruguay, either of which is about three weeks’ steam from London. Venezuela will bo able to reduce this voyage to a fortnight when the shipping arrangements, which have now Teen decided upon, come into force. That is to say. with the exception of the United States and Canada, Venezuela will be the closest of all the meatsupplying countries to the great"'English market. Chilling will be quite feasible, and will, of course, be the process adopted. The company which is inaugurating the trade is that of Messrs. Pools and Brewster, of Smithfield, the partners being respectively German and English, as is the case in so many of the Smithfield firms. Mr. Brewster is at present in Venezuela superintending the erection of the freezing works at Caracas, and he writes in the most hopeful strain of the prospects. Vonezula i.s a country about five times as large as New Zealand, with a population of about two and a-half millions, of whom perhaps the majority are Indians, while, the Spanish minority are one of the most “shifty“ communities in South- America. The. number of cattle in the country is rather doubtful, but accounts seem to agree that it is about twenty millions. Messrs. Pools and Brewster recognise that- in a country which i.s just on the verge of industrial civilisation, the. herds will not be, perhaps, of the best quality, and it will be necessary for them to un. der.go the natural selection of export for some years before they may be classed as really first-class commercial herds. At the same time the country is verv healthy. A great deal of it is mountainous and, as a result, the temperature i.s not nearly so warm as might be expected in that latitude, and cattle diseases are rare.

Our new competitor is expected to be able to land its first meat on the London market in March.