MARKETING OF PRODUCE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25250, 31 July 1947, Page 3

MARKETING OF PRODUCE

FARMERS ASK FOR “POSITIVE” POLICY MAINTENANCE OF FAIR PRICES , “The Press” Special Service WELLINGTON, July 30. “I believe that the federation must press strongly for a positive policy for the marketing of exportable farm produce,” said the acting-president (Mr H. E. Blyde) in his address to the annual Dominion Conference of Federated Farmers in Wellington to-day. The Dominion Council had adopted a proposition that there must be international co-operation and joint responsibility to see that so-called surpluses were not allowed to depress prices of farm produce, said Mr Blyde. The Marshall Plan for Europe was simply the application of the proposals adopted by the council to world trade as a whole, and not merely to the marketing of agricultural products. New Zealand must show greater enterprise than in the past in looking for and developing new markets. There were various small markets all over the world, said Mr Blyde, to which products could gain access. In the aggregate they would add up to a considerable amount. Australia had set an example which New Zealand would do well to follow.

“At the moment Britain needs nearly everything that we can send her,” said Mr Blyde. “That applies in the food line, but we must realise that the time will come, if our production in New Zealand shows the expansion of which I firmly believe it to be capable, when Britain will not be able to take everything that we can sell. Mutton is £• case in point, and here we should be cn the job looking for new outlets.” The time had arrived, when Britain cid not require every agricultural product such as wool, hides# and other J.nimal by-products, and seeds. Farmers in New Zealand had to realise that when production in devastated countries returned to the pre-war level, they would be f£ced with two courses. The first, which he supported, was international co-operation in the marketing of primary produce to see that it was not sold at bargain basement prices. Lord Beveridge had revived and was on the way tc proving fin old theory that falls in farming income were at the root of the. trade J7 c * e «. I* was °P en to farmers to see mat the farming income factor was n °t, a factor which influenced the trade cycle to the detriment of the people as a whole. The alternative was restriction of production. That idea could not be supported economically or ethically. If farmers believed that a fair price could be ensured for agricultural protYSil th TY must fi § ht for said Mr oiyae. He suggested that the representatives to the conference of the International Federation of Agricultural - roducers should be instructed to fight a P°sitive policy such as he had advocated. It would be a real attempt L%- a ? Sl ?t F, overcoming the factors wmch had been so potent in making jor the depressions of the past.