N.Z. surprise for Wilson: dearer ‘cheap food’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33480, 11 March 1974, Page 1

N.Z. surprise for Wilson: dearer ‘cheap food’

(From CHARLES COOPER, London correspondent of "The Press.”)

LONDON. March 10.

A possibly bitter irony for the new British Prime Minister (Mr Wilson) is that within a week of his taking office New Zealand butter anti cheese will cost the British housewife more.

One of the Labour Party’s election planks (and one trodden on heavily by Mr Wilson) was that either by renegotiating the terms of Britain’s entry to the Common Market, or, in the extreme, waving goodbye to Europe, the way would be open for cheap New Zealand food to flood again on to British tables.

It did seem a somewhat naive assumption that there were mountains of cheap food waiting to slide back on to the British market.

Some facts of life will be : revealed next week when . butter jumps two pence a pound in price and cheese at ' least a penny. After recent Danish and Irish prices rises, the now i anachronously-named Empire i Dairies, owned by the New ■ Zealand Dairy Board, has in- 1 creased the trade price of butter £4O a ton and cheese 1 £2O a ton. ! According to the Dairy . Board it is “an adjustment ! of the marketing considera- ; tions” — in other words, to ! put New Zealand up with the > rest to get maximum returns for the producer.

For some time, butter supply and demand has been just! balancing, but there has been ! a shortage of cheese. Holding prices down might mean an I overpowering demand that! might force some form of dis-! tributor rationing. So, to the likely chagrin( of Mr Wilson and his Minis-' ter in charge of retail prices i (Mrs Shirley Williams), the! British housewife will pay an I average of 38c a pound for butter and 56c a pound for bulk cheese. But they will not be shocks ,

in isolation. The prices of 542 food items have risen since the week of the Genera, Election, says the trade magazine, the “Grocer.” At least there is some comfort for the new Government in the tickets on New Zealand lamb in the butchers’ windows. The slide in fresh meat prices, that also depressed lamb returns, is reversing. I British meat is beginning its seasonal climb and New Zealand lamb is looking “Wilsonian” at an average of I9c

a pound cheaper than Us ’ ' competitors. British-produced loin chops j can be as high as $1.17 a pound, compared with a pre-1 . sent top price of 88c for New Zealand chops. 1 But the comparisons offei * little long-term comfort for • t Mr Wilson — especially with J 'the Meat Board hard-! : I headedly aware, even if he is; • not, that New Zealand has; ' changed since Britain joined; ■ the Common Market,' and' that more than just the ■ 13,000 miles between them I I separate the two countries. I The New Zealand Minister! : of Overseas Trade (Mr Wald-1 ing) who will, arrive in Brus-' ■ seis tomorrow to begin a ; European tour with the object . of getting higher prices for New’ Zealand foodstuffs on the British market, will have a tough task, writes David Barber, of the New Zealand Press Association. from I Rnisqplq Mr Walding will find the! European Economic Com-! munity in total confusion, writes Barber. With the Common Market split on the energy crisis, the recent! French move to float the! franc, and Britain’s new! Government pledged to re-! negotiate its entry terms, the : Nine are in turmoil. ! “The Minister will find! Europe very preoccupied,”! I said one E.E.C. officials in

Brussels, "and the New Zealand case may be far from their minds.” ' Belgium is without a Government, having had a General Election today, and Italy is also undergoing another political upheaval, j Mr Walding will visit all 'nine Common Market capitals during his four-week I tour, which will end at [Geneva, where. New Zealand 'Ambassadors in Europe will join him for talks. In his meetings, the Minister will emphasise that New (Zealand is unhappy with the l prices it is getting for butter land cheese exported to Brit- 1 lain under the E.E.C.’s protocol 18. i New Zealand has suffered i from inflation, he will say, [bidding for higher butter ■prices when the community reviews New Zealand’s special arrangement (which expires in 1977) next year. In London on Friday, Mr Pierre Lardinois, the Agriculture Commissioner of the E.E.C., said that a Common Market sheepmeats regulation was being drawn up, and would be put before the Council of Ministers by June. Mr Lardinois said the new policy would take into account New Zealand’s interest in the British market. He told the British National Farmers’ Club the sheepmeat regulation would be “in a looser form” than that covering beef in the community. “Britain’s problem*’ At a brief press conference, Mr Lardinois said the question of higher prices for New Zealand dairy exports to Britain was Britain’s problem. “There is no difficulty whatsoever as far as Brussels is concerned,” he said. “But the British consumer or the British taxpayer will have to pay.

“As I understand it, New Zealand’s problem is not price, but shortages of supply following three years of drought.”