W2 Belgrade Pork and Bacon Curing Industry. 



discrepancy is probably due to the laxity of the terms em- 

 ployed, as some of the establishments hardly merit the desig- 

 nation of buttery, creamery, dairy, &c. 



[Foreign Office Report, Miscellaneous Series, No. 585. Price 2d.] 



Pork and Bacon Curing Industry of Belgrade. 



Th: Board have received through the Foreign Office the 

 following account of the pork and bacon industry in Servia, 

 which has been drawn up by H.M. Vice-Consul at Belgrade. 



Though Servia has always been an agricultural country, the 

 farmers and peasant proprietors were for a long time content to 

 supply their own wants and those of the neighbouring towns 

 without making any special effort to obtain a footing in foreign 

 markets. Although one of their principal sources of income lay 

 in the large herds of swine, which may be seen all over the 

 country, the possibilities of that useful animal as a trade resource 

 were neglected. Little attention was paid to pig breeding 

 and none to fattening pigs for the market. When opportunity 

 occurred, or a pig owner was in need of money, a certain 

 number of gaunt miserable-looking animals were driven in from 

 the woods to be exported to Austria-Hungary. Prices were 

 naturally low, and the purchaser would at the same time buy up 

 considerable quantities of maize, which was to be had cheaper in 

 Servia than in his own country. Transporting both across the 

 river to Hungary, he then proceeded to fatten up Servian swine 

 on the produce of Servian fields, retailing the fattened article at 

 a very considerable profit. This business proving remunerative, 

 it increased by degrees to such an extent that it aroused the 

 interest of Servian business men, who failed to see why an 

 undertaking carried on entirely by means of Servian produce 

 should not be exploited for the benefit of their own country 

 instead of going into the hands of foreigners. The result was 

 the founding in 1896 of a company for the export of Servian 

 meat and, indirectly, to induce the farmers to pay more 

 attention to the breeding of their stock ; and it was owing to the 

 action of this association that a law was passed prohibiting the 

 export of live pigs to Austria-Hungary under the weight of 



