ICELANDERS INSPECT FREEZING WORKS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31047, 30 April 1966, Page 1

ICELANDERS INSPECT FREEZING WORKS

Two representatives of Iceland’s producer-consumer cooperative have been greatly impressed by New Zealand’s chain system for slaughtering and processing lamb. They are Mr Gunar Thorfteinsson, an architect, and Mr Jon R. Magnusson, a mechanical engineer, who represent the Federated Iceland Co-op-erative Society-.

Messrs Thorfteinsson and Magnusson left Christchurch for Wellington yesterday after inspecting the works of Thomas Borthwick and Sons, Ltd., at Belfast When they return to Iceland, after visits to freezing works in the North Island, they will use the information gained to design modern facilities for handling Iceland’s annual kill of 800,000 sheep. At present the killing season in Iceland runs from the middle of September to late in October, at 90 slaughterhouses. The Icelanders said they were amazed to learn that New Zealand, with an annual lamb and sheep kill of 25 million, had only 34 freezing works. Mr Magnusson said that Iceland’s main export market was Britain, which took about 200,000 carcases a year. The rest were consumed locally. Mr Magnusson said his cooperative had heard that New Zealand was the most efficient processor of lamb and mutton in the world, and he and Mr Thorfteinsson were inspecting New Zealand freezing works to enable them to make recommendations to their co-op-erative to improve their processing techniques.