Farmer Fertiliser Company Planned

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30763, 29 May 1965, Page 1

Farmer Fertiliser Company Planned

A company known as the South Island Fertiliser Company has been formed to investigate and promote the establishment of a complete fertiliser industry to serve the districts of Mid and South Canterbury and North Otago.

This was announced in Timaru by Mr R. H. Kerr, a director of the company, after the chairman of the Meat Board (Sir John Ormond) had referred to approaches made to the board by the company when he addressed the annual conference of the Mid-Canterbury provincial district of Federated Farmers.

Mr Kerr said that the directors and members of the new company were representative of the areas which it was proposed the new industry would serve.

The venture, he said, was to be on a co-operative basis similar to other fertiliser companies already established in Southland, Hawke’s Bay and Tauranga. Representations had been made to the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board on May 6 and the matter was now in the hands of the Government “We are hopeful that approval in principle will soon be given so that the complete support of farmers can be obtained,” said Mr Kerr. Increase Expected In excess of 80,000 tons of fertiliser were used annually in Mid and South Canterbury and Noith Otago and a 10 per cent increase a year was predicted. The establishment of this industry would result in a constant supply of the types of fertiliser that farmers wanted at a reduced cost, as had been the case where other co-operatives had been set up. Mr Kerr did not say in his statement whether the new company had sought financial support from the meat industry reserve account, which, according to the last annual

report of the Meat Board,

was in credit by more than £44m at September 30, 1963 Loans For Works The same report showed that the board had on loan to three fanner fertiliser companies slightly more than £2m after they had repaid about £l.6m of the original loan. Mr F. W. Newton, of Ashburton Forks in Mid-Canter-bury, as chairman of a committee investigating the possibilities of establishing a farmers’ co-operative fertiliser works in South Canterbury, said late last year that he believed that like Southland and some other districts in New Zealand, Canterbury farmers were entitled to use Meat Board pool funds to enable them to enjoy the economies that could result from the establishment of a farmer-owned works. Board Sympathetic Sir John Ormond told Federated Farmers in Ashburton on Thursday that the board had told the directors of the new company that it was sympathetic to their proposals. The board was sympathetic to the competitive element that a farmer-owned works would have in Mid-Canterbury and adjacent districts. In the interests of greater production, he said, it was necessary for fertiliser to be landed on the farm at the lowest possible cost.

Mr Newton said last year the use of the Port of Timaru

would result in a saving of 40s a ton on freight and, with savings resulting from the use of Canterbury lime in the manufacture of reverted superphosphate and the elimination of the 10s a ton levy made on fertiliser handled through the South Canterbury depot, the long-term prospect was for a saving of more than 40 per cent on present fertiliser costs to the farmer. The Dominion Fertiliser Company has already announced that it has plans for a fertiliser works in South Canterbury where it already has a mixing plant and store at Seadown.