heads are removed at the time of cleaning and are thrown with the offal into the sea. But as a rule heads are not removed before the fish is landed at British ports and fish is frequently. dispatched inland with heads complete. In the case of cod the weight of the head and backbone may amount to about 27 per cent. of the weight of the fish, almost 25 per cent. in case of haddock and approaching 20 per cent. in the case of catfish and ling. When whole fish is thus sent about the country, not only have transit charges at passenger rates to be paid. on the waste portions, but also transit charges at the same rates on the extra amount of ice used. The ice represents about 50 per cent. of the weight of fish despatched. Economy would point to the desirability of despatching by train and handling the minimum weights of fish possible, in other words the edible portions only. The development of such a system would further result in the concentration at the ports of allor practically all-the waste material in quantities which would facilitate its economic conversion into fish meal and other byproducts, for which we believe there should be a great future. 66 63. This form of organisation would entail a change in marketing custom. It would mean a great development of the filleting trade. This is not so improbable as it at first appears. true that in the purely domestic trade it may take a long time to establish. The housewife often likes to see the fish from which she is buying a cut or which she orders to be sent up filleted. But the trade in filleted fish in large markets has already started and is growing. It is developing at the large inland markets, and also at the ports. Further, half the fresh white" fish consumed in Great Britain is sold to the fried fish shops, hotels and restaurants. In Canada, the United States and Newfoundland the trade in fillets has already attained considerable dimensions and has proved very efficacious in opening up new markets for fish, both in direct domestic consumption and in the catering trades. The fish is filleted at the ports, the fillets wrapped in clean oil paper* and packed with ice and despatched. By this means the ice does not come in contact with the fish. We do not say that this method of trade will become universal, but we believe that the development of a trade from the ports in fillets instead of in whole fish should lead to more economical handling of fish and a greater beneficial use of the by-products. It is the line clearly indicated by economy. 64. The growth of such a trade will obviously depend on the customer's experience of the quality of the fish he thereby receives. It would be doubtful policy to use for a filleting trade any fish but that in the primest condition, and the better the general average quality of fish landed daily at a port the greater * These wrappings might well be used for advertisement and would appeal to the purchaser when they bore the name of a firm of good repute for the quality of its goods. 63461 B 2 confidence would a merchant have in starting and developing such a trade. For it is beyond doubt that the British public has become more and not less fastidious in the quality of the food which it demands, and however attractive a possibility of more economic organisation of trade may appear, it is unlikely to succeed unless the public is satisfied with the quality of the product which is being offered to it. Therefore, any improvement in the average quality of the fish landed at the ports should facilitate the growth of a trade in fillets. There is already scope for such developments, but we believe that these possibilities should be greatly increased, for we consider that improvements in the methods of preserving fish on ship board are possible. If these be effected and by commercial organisation a well managed, reliable trade in filleted fish developed from the chief fishing ports, then the public ought to be able to obtain their fish in better condition than at present and more cheaply, since the economies resulting from saving in costs of transport and handling, and from the full use of the waste products should more than justify the capital expenditure incurred. XIII.—Irregularity of Wholesale Supplies and Effect 65. In our description of the wholesale markets, we have shown that close daily touch is maintained between the wholesalers at the ports and the merchants inland. Thus, Great Britain may be considered as a single market in which the arrivals of fish at any one port react upon the wholesale prices ruling at all ports. In most trades the general effect of a single national market drawing its supplies from alternative sources is to average out large fluctuations in supply and to promote stability in wholesale prices. This is especially the case where the arrival of supplies can be foretold with fair accuracy and the commodity can be stored for a short period without detriment. Although the existence of one national market for fish does assist in correcting the difficulties which might arise from short landings at particular ports on particular days, yet in the present conditions of the trade it is insufficient to procure a steady level in wholesale prices. This is due to the conditions under which the wholesale fish trade is at present necessarily carried on. The vessels belonging to different owners at the various ports visit widely different grounds. Some may have fortune and strike a big catch rapidly. Others may not be so fortunate and may only return after a longer period with fish caught on varying dates and therefore of varying quality. In one case, the fish caught may be of a size and condition very acceptable to the market, in another they may be poor. This wide range in possible quality would not cause fluctuations in the average level of wholesale prices for the country as a whole, if the total quantities of each grade landed daily were about the same. But this is not the case. No effective means of regulating the arrival of ships at the different ports exist and none of foretelling in advance the quality of the catch they will bring to land. Also on account of the perishability of fish the total landings are bound to be cleared daily. A small part may be retained on a vessel for 24 hours or perhaps a little longer, but it is a hazardous proceeding, as the fish will be deteriorating all the time and in the interval arrivals at other ports may be heavy. With an article as perishable as fish and in which freshness is an all important consideration, the owner is anxious to get rid of his catch as soon as he can. Thus supplies, however they have been obtained, are brought direct to port and rapidly sold. British vessels operate from different ports, foreign vessels discharge their catch direct at British ports and fish, as in the case of plaice from Denmark, is received as cargo by fast vessels. In each case the owner's main desire is to sell at once. Thus, although it is a fact that there is a single national market, this is not sufficient to secure a fairly steady level in wholesale prices. 66. We have had no evidence of any general practice whereby fish suitable for food is destroyed or diverted to other purposes. In fact such cases rarely occur. We have been supplied by the English Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries with figures showing for the five ports of Grimsby, Hull, Fleetwood, Milford Haven and North Shields, the percentage of fish suitable for human consumption which was otherwise disposed of. It comes to less than three quarters of one per cent., and includes a considerabie quantity which would probably have been unfit for human food by the time it had reached an inland market. We have not included in calculating this percentage the figures at ports where herrings are the chief kind of fish landed, because we are dealing here primarily with white fish and because, these pelagic fish sometimes come in great shoals, when a surplus beyond the needs both of the internal market and of the export pickling trade must at infrequent intervals be dealt with. The white fish landed each day at the various ports of Great Britain is very promptly-practically immediately-sold for food, and goes, as we have seen, promptly and rapidly into consumption. In such conditions the wholesale market must be very largely at the mercy of daily arrivals, and irregularity in the quantity and quality of these will be reflected in daily wholesale prices. 67. That we have not exaggerated the extreme variability of wholesale prices resulting from irregularity of supply is shown by the chart (Appendix III) which was prepared by the English Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for the use of the Food Council. This gives the average daily wholesale prices at Grimsby for North Sea and for Iceland cod respectively during the three months December, 1926, to February, 1927. These three months were taken at random. We doubt whether any other large trade would show such violent fluctuations in wholesale prices within 63461 B 3 such short periods. Extreme instances from these three months may be quoted. Between 22nd January, and 1st February, 1927 -a space of ten days-the average daily wholesale price realised for North Sea cod rose from 18th pence per lb., to 5th pence per lb., and fell within the next 18 days with intermediate fluctuations to 12 pence per lb. Within four weeks, ignoring intermediate fluctuations, there were variations up and down, of over 300 per cent. 68. Additional evidence of the variations in wholesale prices is furnished by an examination of the weekly average prices for Great Britain over several years. Fresh fish is usually cheaper, both wholesale and retail, in summer than it is in winter. To avoid the effect of such seasonal variations in making comparisons, we have obtained, from the English Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, figures for the last four years, showing the percentage increase or decrease over 1914 of the average wholesale prices of the eight principal kinds of fish landed at four large ports in England, namely, Grimsby, Hull, Fleetwood and Milford Haven, for each week of January and June, referring the January figures to those of January, 1914, and the June figures to those of July, 1914, as standards. The results are as follows: Percentage variations in wholesale average prices of eight principal kinds of fish landed at the four Chief Fishing ports of England. These figures illustrate the same feature of extreme and rapid fluctuations and are not open to the objection that they relate to particular kinds of fish at a particular market in a particular quarter of the year. Such wide variations of wholesale prices cannot be ascribed to rapid changes in demand. Fish goes into regular daily consumption. It is not stored. It is very promptly cleared. The total demand must remain, except at such special times as Good Friday, very fairly constant. The fluctuations are therefore due to large variations in quantity and quality of supply, resulting from the manner in which the fish caught is irregularly unloaded on the market. There is also reason to believe that the fluctuations in wholesale prices from day to day are greater and that the range of daily prices between the best and the inferior grades is wider than before the war. 69. We have referred in paragraph 32 of this Report to the present disproportionate increase in the retail prices of fish compared with those of other foodstuffs. In paragraph 68 above, we have given the increases in wholesale prices of all fish in June, 1927, as compared with July, 1914. It is only 16 per cent., which is below the increase in the wholesale prices of many commodities. The discrepancy between the increases in wholesale and retail prices is very great and the elucidation of that problem is for the Food Council. Whatever may be the complete reasons for these differences there is no doubt that a retailer endeavours to keep his retail prices steady. Rapid fluctuations are difficult to manage and unsettling to his customers and trade. He, however, as we have shown, has to buy on a very fluctuating and unstable wholesale market and, in his attempt to retain a uniform retail price, places that at a level to protect him against rapid and severe rises of price in the wholesale market. It would not be remarkable, but natural, if in such circumstances he overestimated the risk against which he was seeking to protect himself. 70. We believe, therefore, that instability of wholesale prices is one of the contributory causes of the high level of retail prices, and that in this way instability checks the expansion of consumption. The chief economic need of the industry is, in our opinion, to secure a more uniform supply and thereby a greater stability in wholesale prices, which would result, we hope, in a reduction in retail prices. The key to stability, since it cannot from the nature of the case lie in a regulation of the quantities landed, must be found in the process of marketing. Under existing conditions an immediate market is imperative, with the result that there are alternate gluts and shortages. If supplies could be stored, even for a few days, without deterioration the conditions of the trade would be revolutionised. 71. The effect of irregular market prices on attempts to make the fisheries off British North America serve the market in Great Britain must be noticed. It is at present nearly impossible for any Newfoundland or Canadian shipper to forecast what price he will realise for the fish he may send to the British wholesale market. It is clearly useless for him to send large and irregular supplies of particular kinds of fish, and to attempt to market them quickly in the manner customary in the British industry. The result of such action could only be to break the market on the day to his own detriment and that of the British industry. He, too, needs regularity and stability. He can only attain this by sending fish of the best 63461 B 4 |