rs 



V. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



(5,904,323 pounds), Portugal 1,263,284 kilos (2,779,225 pounds), 

 France 862,465 kilos (1,897,423 pounds), United Kingdom 372,727 

 kilos (819,999 pounds), Italy 209,041 kilos (459,890 pounds), and the 

 United States 77,951 kilos (171,492 pounds). 



During the next three years the imports were as follows : 



During 1918 and 1919, respectively, there were imported 1,418,641 

 and 2,458,253 kilograms (3,121,010 and 5,408,157 pounds) of sardines. 



The standards imposed on imported canned salmon by the Na- 

 tional Department of Health make it very difficult to work up a sub- 

 stantial trade for the American article in this market. The high 

 import duties, surtaxes, and other charges are also detrimental. These 

 obstacles apply, of course, to canned salmon from other countries as 

 well, but they operate more unfavorably against our own salmon, 

 because Americans are more apt to become discouraged in the face 

 of such impediments and to give up the market than Europeans. 



It will have been seen from the foregoing statistics of this report 

 that the preferred products such as sardines, canned salmon, dried 

 codfish, etc., come from European countries, and it is considered that 

 the reasons for such preferment are chiefly the following: 



(a) European brands have been advertised and introduced here, 

 and are much better known than the American, because Europe 

 made a bid for the Argentine market long before the United States 

 did so. 



(b) European prices before the war were uniformly lower than those 

 of the United States, because of the lower producing costs, chiefly in 

 the form of lower wages in the industries. 



(c) Freight rates from Europe have always been lower than those 

 from the United States, with the additional advantage to European 

 producers of the ability to take back return cargoes of cereals and 

 other Argentine products that the United States did not need. 



(d) European selling terms, credits, etc., have always been more 

 favorable to purchasers than the American because of the keen 

 competition between the various European countries. 



{/) The large Spanish, Italian, French, and English colonies in 

 Argentina are accustomed to consume the products of their respective 

 countries, while the American colony here is comparatively unimpor- 

 tant in numbers. 



(/) It is only within the last six or seven years that special atten- 

 tion has been devoted here by one or two American importers to the 

 canned products of our Pacific coast, but it is believed that this trade 

 must necessarily increase in view of the comparatively recent creation 

 of a direct steamship line from Washington, Oregon, and California 

 down the west coast to Latin America, through the Straits of Magel- 

 lan, up the east coast, and through the Panama Canal on the return 

 trip to those States. There is at present at least a monthly freight 



