Need For Exporting “Not Understood”

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 16

Need For Exporting “Not Understood”

It was clear that the need for exporting was not understood either by the general public or most manufacturers, the marketing manager of Philips Electrical Industries of N.Z., Ltd (Mr M. H. Harding), told a conference on export marketing in Christchurch yesterday.

The two-day meeting has been organised by the Department of industries and Commerce, and is being attended by about 150 Christchurch company executives. There had been recent criticism of some exporters with the claim that overseas prices were lower than those in New Zealand, Mr Harding said. It was necessary to relate the distribution costs in the home market to those in the export markets, where demand and volume itself could easily determine a lower cost for distribution. This did not always mean that the local consumer subsidised exports, but the gap in prices might continue to widen if the domestic distribution costs kept accelerating. “One cannot expect to have wage increases in any sector of the community without it affecting the rest of the com; munity,” Mr Harding said. Here again education was needed, and it was traditional that Governments avoided this issue, but it was time somebody brought it to light, he said.

ing in marketing, and said this education was needed in the fields of management sciences, the law, finance,- and national customs of other countries.

“If Governments cannot say it, there are plenty of others who can.” Mr Harding spoke of the need for education and train-