20 



Thirty -ninth Annual Report 



Particulars of the quantities of herrings cured, with the methods 

 of cure, are given in Table D., No. I. (p. 126). Fish cured in 

 Northumberland, it may be noted, are included in this table. The 

 total cure shows a decrease from the preceding year, but this was 

 little more than in proportion to the decrease in the landings. The 

 quantity cured gutted totalled 552,828^- barrels, considerably less 

 than half the quantity cured in normal years. Of this total 409,237 

 barrels, or 74 per cent., were handed over to the Board under the 

 Guarantee, for which curers will have received when final settlement 

 is made the sum of £1,281,563:14:6. Only 20,735 barrels were 

 cured ungutted, as against 61,535 in 1919, the demand for such 

 herrings in France for conversion into reds having again fallen off. 

 The quantity made into bloaters or reds in Scotland was 14,700 

 crans, showing as in the case of kippers a substantial increase on 

 the pre-war figures. The quantity tinned does not show a similar 

 increase, although tinning continued to be an important branch of 

 the industry. Aberdeen, with Fraserburgh and Eyemouth, accounted 

 for nearly all the herrings tinned or made into bloaters or 

 reds, but the other methods of curing are carried on all round 

 the coast. 



The cost of curing in any form during the past year was exception- 

 ally high, as outlays in respect of curing material, labour and freights 

 were alike heavy, while as a result of the shortage in the landings 

 not only had higher prices to be paid for herrings for curing, but 

 establishment and other expenses, which are incurred by curers inde- 

 pendently of the quantities dealt with, had to be distributed over a 

 smaller total cure, and the cost per barrel was correspondingly 

 increased. 



The values of the herrings after cure are given in Table E., No. IV. 

 (p. 137), which shows the total to have been £3,504,176. As regards 

 gutted herrings, however, the values entered, although based on the 

 prices ruling during the year and in the case of Government stocks 

 on the selling prices fixed, require to be discounted, as large quantities 

 were still on hand at the end of the year, and there was little pro- 

 spect of their being disposed of at the prices fixed. 



Exports. 



Until the outbreak of war the Scottish export trade in cured 

 herrings was conducted chiefly with Eussia and Germany. During 

 the past year, however, trade with Eussia was not permitted ; while 

 the German Government, with a view evidently to reducing the 

 price of herrings by the elimination of competitive buying and obtain- 

 ing the best price possible for large quantities of cheaper grade 

 Norwegian herrings already on hand or officially contracted for from 

 Norway, had vested in a Herring Buying Association a virtual im- 

 port monopoly, which was in operation throughout the greater part 

 of the year. These two factors, combined with the dislocation of the 

 international exchanges and the high cost of production and freight, 

 greatly restricted the export of herrings during the past year. 



As shown in Table E., No. II. (p. 134), the total export for the year 

 amounted to 333,3 15^- barrels, being little more than half that for the 

 previous year and less than a fourth of that for 1913. The exports 



