MARKETS IN FAR EAST Beef Exports To Japan

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28541, 21 March 1958, Page 12

MARKETS IN FAR EAST Beef Exports To Japan

(Ntw Zealand Prm Association) WELLINGTON, March 20. The Japanese/meat market was “a most promising one,’* particularly now that there were improved refrigerated shipping services from New Zealand to the ?ar East, the Acting-Prime Minister (Mr Skinner) told the midyear conference of the electoral college of the Meat and Wool Boards today. This year, Japan had emerged as a substantial purchaser of New Zealand meat, he said. It was from the Far East, as living standards improved, that he felt New Zealand's real market expansion in the future would come, Mr Skinner added. Consumption of meat a head in Japan was very low, but the country was the most highly-industrialised in the East and the rate of consumption could be expected to increase as living standards were raised.

Apart from Japan, New Zealand’s main markets in the East were such Commonwealth countries as India and Malaya. Protein Deficiency

A serious problem in the underdeveloped countries of the East was the lack of protein in the diet. “The authorities in these countries are fully aware of this deficiency and are encouraging the consumption of skimmed milk powder,” Mr Skinner said. The demand for milk products and meat by Eastern countries may be expected as living standards rose, he added. “In the long term, the Eastern countries should offer fruitful markets for our exports.”

Mr Skinner said the trade mission to the United Kingdom confirmed that everything possible must be done by New Zealand to develop supplementary markets for its dairy produce and meat. New Zealand’s principal markets, other than the United Kingdom, for such products were the more advanced countries of Western Europe. Whether these countries would continue to offer expanding markets for the country’s exports was very much open to conjecture.

“The Western European countries have highly developed agricultural industries which they protect by devious means.” he said. European Customs Union Western Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg had formed a customs union and while any move in Europe towards closer co-operation must, in general, be viewed favourably. New Zealand was concerned because the agricultural provisions of the customs union treaty appeared to indicate a continuance of a policy of agricultural protectionism.” If such a policy were carried out within a framework of economic integration, domestic production in Europe could be stimulated to the extent that opportunities for outside suppliers would be reduced.

Also of importance to the Dominion’s marketing prospects in Europe and the United Kingdom was the proposal by the United Kingdom of a European free-trade area. “The implications for New Zealand could be far-reaching if a free trade area comes into being and this includes trade in agricultural products,” Mr Skinner said.