THE WEEK

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27564, 22 January 1955, Page 5

THE WEEK

CO OPERATIVE MEAT MARKETING

The objects of the Primary Producers' Co-operative Society (Otago), Ltd., and its achievements up to the present were described to a large meeting of North Canterbury producers this week by Mr A. Macfarlane, manager of the society. Mr M. E. Jenkins presided. Mr Macfarlane explained that the main function of the society was to ensure that producers obtained full market value for their stock. He described the arrangements made with the stock* and station “agents for drafting clients’ stock, and with the freezing companies for processing it, under the “open door” policy of the Meat Board. The only effective means of using the valuable rights provided by the Meat Board under that policy was through the society, f said Mr Macfarlane. It acted as agents for the individual producer, traded on the same lines as the proprietary companies, but returned all profits to its pro-ducer-shareholders at the end of the season. In seven years of operation, the society handled 1,000,000 sheep and lambs and the surplus above schedule prices was £86,000 in that time. Last season a bonus of 2s 3d a lamb and Is lid a sheep was paid out “This bonus represented merely the visible results and it is important that account should be taken of the inestimable additional benefits which accrued to all producers, shareholders or not, as a direct result of the society having been in the competitive field,” he said. “The society indicated the true value of stock, and thus forced competitors into paying prices much more in keeping with true market value than they would otherwise have intended to pay.” Mr Macfarlane said that a most satisfactory arrangement had been made with the Fatstock Marketing Corporation, an organisation sponsored by the National Farmers’ Union in The corporation was now handling about £5,000,000 worth of meat a week, through 100 depots in various centres in Britain, and the arrangement, which was regarded as a first step toward producers in the two countries working as partners instead of competitors, had created very great interest. Stock was coming in to the society in greatly increased quantities this season, and a threefold increase in numbers handled was expected, he said. The standard of drafting was a tribute to the competence of Canterbury stock and station agents.