HOPES FOR NEW OTAGO WORKS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30677, 17 February 1965, Page 3

HOPES FOR NEW OTAGO WORKS

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, February 16.

The Central Otago Farmers’ Freezing Company, Ltd., hoped to issue a prospectus soon, the chairman of the pilot company, Mr L. E. P. Barrett, told the Otago executive of Federated Farmers today.

The meeting was also told that F.M.C., Ltd., the huge British concern which markets lamb exported by the Primary Producers’ Co-opera-tive Society, Ltd., would finance new works, without attaching any strings to the money, purely to provide more processing capacity. Mr Barrett, who had been invited to tell the executive what progress his company had made, said he regarded the Meat Board’s recommendation to the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Taiboys) that a new works should be established, with particular reference to the needs of Central Otago, as an achievement of which the company might be proud. A soon as this had been announced, a committee had been formed to consider finance and it was obvious the company would soon have to go to its shareholders for more money. There was much to be done

so that whoever came along with the balance of the money could be sure that it would be settire, whether the financer was a consortium of overseas companies or whether the Meat Board helped, Mr Barrett said. Mr H. D. Bell asked whether the Central Otago company had recognised the offer by F.M.C. through the Primary Producers’ Co-opera-tive Society and whether it considered that acceptance of this offer could speed up the establishment of works in central Otago. "A tentative approach has been made,” Mr Barrett replied, “but we have no knowledge of a concrete offer.”