No meat corp. move

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32957, 1 July 1972, Page 2

No meat corp. move

Although Federated Farmers is in favour of a marketing corporation for wool, it is not at present in favour of a similar scheme for meat.

Mr M. R. Barnett, the Canterbury vice-chairman, reported to the executive of the meat and wool section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers yesterday on the recent annual national conference of the section. A North Canterbury remit urging that the board become more actively involved in the marketing of export meat was unanimously approved at the conference. Mr Barnett said they had not proposed that there should be one selling organisation or a corporation for meat. It was felt that the board, as constituted, should become more active in marketing but without owning all the lambs. If the board felt that the schedule of prices being offered to producers was realistic, then it might not need to enter into marketing; but should the prices not be satisfactory, then the board would be expected to do so and this was the board’s feeling I also.

Mr Barnett said the board would be in a better position after this season’s exercise in marketing, to know who were weak and strong sellers. In the event of it having to repeat this operation,

the section had urged the board to direct its lambs to the most efficient sellers. In raising the percentage of lamb that exporters had to send to markets outside Britain from 15 to 22 per cent, Mr Barnett said, the board had brought about a better balance of meat in the United Kingdom, and this was in a large way responsible for the way that the market had gone there.

Board members had been present at this stage of the meeting, said Mr Barnett, and the chairman (Mr C. Hilgendorf) had indicated that the board’s feeling about marketing was in line with the remit.

The chairman (Mr B. H. Palmer) said that the conference had rejected a remit that a corporation like that proposed for wool also be established for meat. Wobl was under a threat in the market place and needed a strong marketing organisation, whereas meat was in demand throughout the world and it looked as though it would be required for a long time to come. The announcement that the Cabinet was proceeding with the preparation of legislation for the establishment of a wool marketing corporation indicated that the Government accepted that wool marketing reform was in the national good and that grower opinion was in favour of this development, said Mr Palmer.

A question was asked about a request of the national meat and wool conference that the proposed corporation be required to consult with representatives of the meat and wool section of Federated Farmers on the fixing of the price level to growers before each wool selling season opened.

Mr Palmer said that if the corporation was to function it had to have the support and approval of growers, and as it would be working for growers with their support, they were entitled to know what it was doing. The provincial president (Mr A. F. Wright) said that the intention was that the corporation would advise Federated Farmers of the prices it would be paying. Voices: The remit does not read that way. The vote Mr Wright said that there had been criticism that the vote taken on the marketing issue at the meat and wool conference did not represent the feeling of woolgrowers, but at the meeting of the council of the section in Wellington on May 23 they had been instructed to ascertain the feelings of members of the organisation and to report back to the conference last week. This had been done. The chairman said that each of the 23 branches in North Canterbury had had a meeting on the issue. Some of the meetings had been large and some small.