Visitor Saw No Trade Efforts By N.Z. In East

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30206, 10 August 1963, Page 10

Visitor Saw No Trade Efforts By N.Z. In East

Australia had been “beating the pants off” New Zealand in developing a live export trade to the great potential market of 10 million people living in the area that is destined to become Malaysia, said the secretary of the Canterbury Rubber Workers’ Union, Mr T. Fletcher, yesterday.

The only New Zealand product he had noticed on a recent five-weeks’ visit to the area were some cases of what appeared to be “second grade eating apples,” in Singapore.

“Whoever packed them did not make as good a job as the Australian people did with their apples,” he said.

Mr Fletcher and that although he travelled 2000 miles by road from Singapore to the Thailand border, with stops of several days at Pana ng, Butterworth, Ipoh, Taiping, Cameron Highlands, Seremban, Maclacca and Singapore, he saw very little advertising of New Zealand goods. The Australian businessmen, on the other hand, were taking these places by storm, he said. “The enterprise of the Australians has to be seen to be believed,” said Mr Fletcher. Every Wednesday, at least half the press in all the centres I have mentioned is taken up by advertising Australian goods. “Australian distributing agencies are already operating in all the centres. “They are selling at least seven kinds of Australian cheese, Australian butter, Australian packaged meat, Australian canned meat, Australian apples, Australian citrus fruit and Australian offal such as livers and kidneys.”

Mr Fletcher said that most hotels and restaurant bars throughout Malaya were showing great displays of Australian wines, brandies and beers. “Australian beer

would be the most common alcoholic beverage over there,” he said. The rest of the world, said Mr Fletcher' was sitting poised, waiting to strike within 48 hours of the preliminary signing of the Malayasia agreement in London. New Zealand slept on as soundly as ever. “Within those 48 hours after the signing, Japan announced the intention to build a £750,000 tyre and rubber plant in Singapore,” he said.

“A Hong Kong firm, with American capital, announced the setting up of a texti'e factory in Kuala Lumpur and another company backed by American capital announced a £500,000 steel mill for Kuala Lumpur.” Mr Fletcher said that when he visited the Terrendak military camp, where New Zealand, Australian and British troops were stationed, the huge food stores there were stocked with Australian butter, jam and meat. The men were drinking Australian beer. “I did not notice a single New Zealand product,” he said. "Yet the Australians were flying chilled lettuces from Australia almost daily.” Mr Fletcher said that it could possibly be argued that a bigger country, such as Australia, might have an advantage over New Zealand in exporting. But how, he asked, could New Zealand find an answer to the fact that the small

country of Cyprus, on the other side of the world, was staging first-class and effective wine fairs both in Singapore and Malacca. The Cypriots, he said, were even attracting custom by giving away free bottles of Cyrpus wines. “If New Zealand businessmen have been over to Malaya with the idea of promoting New Zealand ■trade, they have failed miserably,” said Mr Fletcher. “I searched for evidence of New Zealand exports to Malaya and barring the exception of the apples, I could not find any.”