742 Imports of Agricultural Produce in 1908. [jan., 



IMPORTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IN 1908. 



The total value of the principal articles of food imported 

 into the United Kingdom in 1908 was ^183,699,000 as 

 against ,£188,353,000 in 1907, ^181,604,000 in 1906, and 

 an average of ,£177,047,000 in the three years 1903- 1905. 

 These figures represent the value (cost, insurance, and 

 freight), as declared to the Customs officers at the port of 

 arrival, of the grain and flour, meat and animals for food, 

 butter, cheese, eggs, fruit and vegetables, hops, lard, and 

 margarine, .which may be grouped together as agricultural 

 food products in the sense that they compete more or less 

 directly with the home supply. 



It is a somewhat interesting fact that the increase in value 

 during recent years has been due almost entirely to a rise 

 in price and not to any substantial growth as regards the 

 principal articles in the quantities of food imported. With- 

 out attempting any precise analysis, it may be said broadly 

 that on the average of the two years 1 907-1 908 the imports 

 of cattle, sheep, flour, barley, oats, maize, cheese, mar- 

 garine, and eggs were less than they were for the two years 

 1903-4, while the imports of wheat, bacon, hams, butter, and 

 lard show little or no advance, and it is only in the purchases 

 of fresh beef and mutton that any extension is distinctly per- 

 ceptible. The fluctuations in some of these items from year 

 to year are considerable, but it may fairly be said that during 

 the past four or five years the rise in the import of some of 

 the principal articles of food has been checked, and that 

 though the trade has been more or less maintained, it has 

 shown no tendency to increase. 



Cattle and Beef. — The importation of live cattle for food 

 which fell off in 1907 experienced a further decline in 1908. 

 To some slight extent this was due to the prohibition of 

 animals from certain United States ports consequent on the 

 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in that country, but the 

 bulk of the decline occurred in the first ten months of the 

 year before the prohibition came into force. It was prac- 

 tically confined to the United States, as the receipts from 

 Canada were about equal to those of 1907. The important 



