FARMERS AND E.E.C. Attitude In U.K. “Statesmanlike”

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31468, 7 September 1967, Page 1

FARMERS AND E.E.C. Attitude In U.K. “Statesmanlike”

British farmers and their organisations seemed to be adopting a statesmanlike attitude to their country’s attempt to join the European Common Market, the director of economies and statistics for the United Kingdom Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr L. Napolitan) said in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Napolitan said he felt that most British farmers accepted that it was probably in the national interest that Britain should enter the Common Market.

Some farmers, he said, would be better off under the Common Market system. There was no doubt that other farmers—dairy producers and producers of livestock other than beef—would have to adjust themselves and this was causing them some concern.

“The National Farmers’ Union has made its attitude pretty clear and I think that farmers and their organisations have adopted a statesmanlike attitude. They are not trying to impede the Government but are naturally trying to seek assurances about the future of agriculture,” he said.

Mr Napolitan said that different answers might be received from farmers according to the part of the country that the visitor went to. The hill sheepfarmer would be somewhat worried, but the big cereal grower on the east coast would not be concerned —he was efficient and would get higher prices. But this

would mean higher feedstuff prices for the dairy producer. It had been said that the farmer was in effect two people—he was a farmer and a private citizen. As a citizen he would agree that Britain must enter the Common Market, but as a farmer he would say that he had a business to look after and did not want it damaged.

Markets For Meat Referring to the recent depressed state of the meat market in the United Kingdom, associated with heavy supplies, Mr Napolitan said that he had always emphasised to his New Zealand colleagues that because New Zealand had embarked on an expansion programme based largely on sheep, if prices were not to be depressed as many alternative markets as possible should be found. Demand was not strong enough to sustain prices indefinitely. “My fear is that we may become the market of last resort.” Sheep numbers in Britain, he said, were now static. Pro-

duction in the United Kingdom was tending to become more concentrated in the hill and mountain areas and to decline on the lowland farms, which were going more into other products. In common with New Zealand, Britain had a balance of payments problem and one means of countering that was an expanding programme for agriculture. Both countries recognised what a contribution an efficient agriculture could make to the national economy and to the solution of the balance of payments problem. Talks In N.Z. As an economist in the Ministry of Agriculture for 20 years, who had inevitably been concerned with New Zealand’s agricultural problems, Mr Napolitan said he hoped to have discussions with a great many people in bis week in the country so that he might be able to deal with these questions in a more personal and effective way in the future. ''

Mr Napolitan will visit the chairman of the Wool Board (Mr J. Acland) at Mount Peel during the week-end and will spend some time in the Waikato. He has come to New Zealand from the conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists in Australia.