SALE OF N.Z. MEAT IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26265, 9 November 1950, Page 6

SALE OF N.Z. MEAT IN BRITAIN

Meat Board Proposes To Buy Distributing Agency

PARTNERSHIP WITH COMPANIES OWNED IN DOMINION

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, November 8. To cheek further control of the New Zealand meat industry by oversea* companies, the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board proposes to go into partnership with New Zealandowned freezing works to buy a wholesale distributing agency for New Zealand meat in Britain. The freezing works concerned are the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, Ltd., the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company, Ltd., the Southland Frozen Meat Company, Ltd., the Gear Meat Company, Ltd., of Wellington, and R. and W. Hellaby, Ltd., of Auckland. A full report on the Meat Board’s plans will be made to metnbers of Federated Farmers next month.

The English agency is Towers and Company, which was controlled before the war by the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, Ltd. The Meat Board will take 51 per cent, of the shares in the agency, and the five freezing companies will take the rest. The New Zealand companies will each nominate a director to the board of Towers and Company, and the Meat Board will have two directors.

The Meat Board has a policy of checking the strength of overseas com- 1 panics operating in New Zealand and of ensuring that smaller New Zealandowned companies are kept going. It 4 has decided to buy a controlling inter- , est in Towers and Company so that 1 these companies, which operate on 30 < per cent, of the Dominion’s total meat i output, will be in a better position to i sell their meat in the United Kingdom. < ’ Before the war New Zealand meat i was sold and distributed in the United ] Kingdom by a number of wholesale j agencies- During the war meat was distributed by the British Ministry of 1 Food. Since 1939 most of the smaller 1 distributing firms in the United King- : dom have been inactive. The Meat 1 Board, which has had a committee i working on the present scheme for ] two years, has felt that larger distri- j buting firms might grow more power-1 < ful and dominate trade. If this hap- j s pened New' Zealand-owned companies j s would have difficulty in finding an'; outlet for their meat, which would lead < to a reduction in competition in New, i Zealand. t

New Zealand has been describe as; the last outpost of producer control in the meat industry. Only 30 per cent, of farmers’ freezing works are left In Australia almost the whole of the meat trade is in the hands of three large overseas firms, and the chairman of the Meat Board (Mr G. H. Grigg) has. told the meat and wool council of Federated Farmers that if the same position is allowed to develop in New Zealand meat producers will have a big struggle on their hands. Recording to Mr Grigg. the Meat Board’s scheme has several advantages. If bulk purchasing is abolished, New Zealand’s* free meat will be sold through one-agency. The “open door” policy will be ensured. The Meat Board will have up-to-date information about meat prices in the United Kingdom, giving it a check on local meat schedules. If it wants to bring in a support price, using £30,000,000 available to producers in the meat pool accounts, it can only do that with exact information about prices each week in the United Kingdom.