Apple-import ban by E.E.C. feared

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33463, 19 February 1974, Page 3

Apple-import ban by E.E.C. feared

(New Zealand Press Association! WELLINGTON, February 18. New Zealand could face a ban on all apple exports to the enlarged Common Market from April, the general manager of the Apple and Pear Board (Mr J. B. Cubey) said today.

In a speech to British and European fruit trade representatives taking part in a special one-day seminar, Mr Cubey said that C.0.P.A., the Common Market equivalent of Federated Farmers, had petitioned the E.E.C. Commission to have the ban imposed on all third countries from April 1.

“We do not know what the outcome of this situation will be,” he said.

Last year 75 per cent of New Zealand apple exports went to the enlarged European Community, and earned about $2O million in overseas exchange. The chairman of the Apple and Pear Board, (Mr S. D. Sinclair), said in an interview that the Government was watching the situation closely and that representations were being made in Brussels, “There have been similar efforts to stop us from selling in Europe in the past,” he said. “We must just be optimistic that the ban will not be put into effect.” The first ships to load apples are already on the way to New Zealand, and are expected to begin their return trips, fully loaded, in the first week in March. It is believed that the C.O.P.A. move has the full support of Britain’s National Farmers’ Union. C.0.P.A., which has a well-organised and powerful

lobby in Brussels, has long been concerned about the surplus apple situation within the European Community. Mr Cubey, however, said it was the firm belief of the board that consumer preference for fresh fruit would be an obstacle “that the pressure groups who endeavour to market an excess quantity of out-of-season stored fruit will never overcome.

“Demand and supply, linked with consumer preference, or because of it, are factors on which we exist,” he said. “Marketing and production cannot be divorced. They must work hand in hand. The realities of blind adherence to production without recognition of market demand and potential demand, if ignored, will only lead to failure.”

Mr Cubey said it would be wishful thinking to suppose that good and bad years of marketing returns for New Zealand apples would not continue. “But we are optimistic enough to believe that in half a decade or at worst a decade, the apple-producing

countries of the world will have adjusted their production and production potential to the over-all marketing demand and potential, and so have ensured that theii share of the consumers purse is dependent on pure marketing ability and quality of the product,” he said.