Scheme To Regulate Meat For U.S.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31862, 14 December 1968, Page 14

Scheme To Regulate Meat For U.S.

A scheme to regulate beef, veal and mutton shipments to the United States next year has been worked out by the meat industry and the Meat Board.

This is a sequel to the limiting of beef shipments in September to avoid the imposition of quotas on meat entering the United States. Mr W. M. Cleland, general manager for the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, Ltd, said last evening that the aim was to secure the best possible return for New Zealand and the producer by seeking to allocate to the commodity that would give the best return over other markets the biggest percentage of the permissible amount of meat that could be sent to the United States. Australia and New. Zealand, he said, had sought to assess a fair share of the quantity of beef, veal, mutton and goat meat that could be imported into the United States without causing quotas. The New Zealand share had been estimated at 90.000 tons, with the possibility of an annual increase of about 3000 tons.

Next year the position would be affected by the halting of shipments a few months ago, and some of the meat so affected would now go into New Zealand’s exports to the United States in the first quarter of next year. Percentages Of Quotas Percentages, he said, had been worked out for the proportion of production that could be exported to the United States of commodities covered by the United States quota system. These would be subject to constant review and adjustment in the light of estimated production in New

Zealand and the market in the United States and elsewhere in the world. It would thus be possible for the proportion of primal cuts of beef and of grinding beef for; manufacturing to be increased or decreased. The percentages fixed were the same for all companies and meant that the balance of production of these commodities had to be sent to other markets. Because the United States was virtually the only market for boneless bobby veal it had been agreed that the whole of New Zealand production should be sent to that market and the allocation for other commodities had been adjusted accordingly. Mr Cleland said that the scheme would be implemented by the industry, but

would be subject to the control of the Meat Board in that it was responsible for allocating shipping. “Have To Conform” “Nobody is happy about any sort of quota system,” said Mr Cleland, “but if an overseas country has such a system then we have to conform with it to the best advantage of our country." One of the encouraging aspects was the co-operation shown by the industry in helping to resolve a difficult situation, said the chairman of the Meat Board (Sir John Ormond) in a press statement The board believed that the scheme was flexible enough to cope with any new circumstances which might arise.

Australia recently announced a similar scheme.