MEAT BOARD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 71, Issue 35, 21 November 1950, Page 2

MEAT BOARD

MAY ENTER LONDON TRADE PROPOSAL VIEWED WITH ALARM (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 20. The proposal of the New Zealand Meat Board to enter the London meat trade is viewed with' alarm by Mr W. A. lorns, who was chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board for eight years..

Mr lorns said to-day that as a member of the Dairy Board he had made many trips to England to boost New Zealand produce. He felt he had thus gained an insight into the London meat trade.

The proposal of the Meat Board to enter the trade in partnership with five New Zealand freezing companies was a retrograde step, he said. The Meat Board, since it started, had inspired the British meat trade with confidence, as the trade knew that .New Zealand meat was always absolutely up to grade. Before the Board had come into operation many importers had displayed their meat at Smithfield to allow retailers to inspect the quality of their offerings. Because of the confidence in the New Zealand grading much of this had been done away with, thue lessening the handling costs of New Zealand meat. Bitter Experience Mr lorns said he would be sorry to see the Board go into the trade, as he had a bitter experience when the Dairy Board had tried to prevent distributing in London by dairy wholesalers. Then, and even now, many dairy traders looked on the actions of the Dairy Boards as Government dictation. One firm which had handled between 300,000 and 400,000 New Zealand lambs a year had been so antagonised by the action of the Dairy Board that for some years it had cut down greatly on the amount of New Zealand dairy produce it handled. Retaliationof this type could happen if the proposals of the Meat Board were carried out. George Towers, Ltd., the firm the Meat Board planned to buy out, had been operating for 30 years as a subsidiary of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, Ltd., yet it had been unable to distribute the Refrigerating Company’s whole output, he added. Mr lorns said that the chairman of the Meat Board (Mr G. H. Grigg) was not quite consistent when he said that the Board’s new venture would help to eliminate the large firms which handled 70 per cent, of New Zealand’s exported meat because the Board had iust given permission to one of the largest exporting firms to increase its exports by 100 per cent. Depletion of Pool Mr Grigg had been asked at a meeting of the electoral college of the Meat Board if the Board’s proposed business would not be short of beef. He had replied that the company would probably have to buy beef from other countries. Mr Grigg had also said the company would have to build one or more cool stores.

Mr lorns said that when the last cool store had been built in London £240,000 had been paid for the site alone.

“I am afraid that with the buying of beef from other countries, the building of cool stores," and heavy expenditure by the Meat Board, the £30,000,000 meat pool will he seriously depleted,” said Mr lorns. He now saw, he added, why the former Minister of Marketing (the Rt. Hon. W. Nash) had stipulated that the meat pool money could be spent only with the agreement of the Government, and he hoped it would seriously consider the Board’s venture before it gave its blessing. He was sorry Mr Grigg had not taken the farmers into his confidence, as many of them had known nothing of the venture until the details had been published this month. The meat producers would not have favoured it had they had an opportunity to discuss it. He regretted that the old catch cry that New Zealand should have its own selling floor still emanated from talkative farmers. They would he better employed straightening up their farms and concentrating on production, Mr lorns said.