Ewe sale to Iran ‘was disastrous’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33773, 20 February 1975, Page 3

Ewe sale to Iran ‘was disastrous’

faVZ.P.A. Staff Correspondent)

PEKING, February 19. J he sale of old ewe mutton to Iran last year was disastrous for New Zealand's reputation, according to the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Moyle).

“it was profitable for a few people, but it was disastrous for our reputation,” he said in an interview.

Mr Moyle, who has just visited Iran and Saudi Arabia, said that the potential market for New Zealand sheepmeat, particularly lamb, was enormous.

"But we’ve got to provide quality meat and not fry to unload inferior mutton as we did last year,” he said. New Zealand sold more than 6000 tons of ewe mutton to Iran but, Mr Moyle said, the Iranian authorities were still holding some. “They are not game to put it on the market because of the public outcry,” he said.

The fault was not all on New Zealand’s side, according to Mr Moyle. “They went for cheap stuff—and they got it,” he said. “It’s been a most unfortunate result.”

Mr Moyle said he could see the Middle East becoming New Zealand’s second biggest market for meat, after Britain. But a lot of education was required in the correct handling, transport, thawing and cooking of frozen meat.

In his talks with the Iranian authorities, Mr Moyle suggested the possible use of tankers and bulk carriers to carry deck-loads of refrigerated containers from New Zealand, and the Iranians agreed to co-operate in an immediate feasibility study of this.

“There are about 45 tankers a year from the Gulf area to New Zealand returning with sea-water for ballast,” he said. “With a bit of technical ingenuity they could instal power on the

deck to have refrigerated containers.”

Mr Moyle said the idea had struck an immediate responsive chord with the Iranians and he intended to take it up with the Government and the New Zealand Shipping Corporation as soon as he returned to Wellington.

“We’d have the key factor of regularity of shipping, which is a big problem for New Zealand as far as the Middle East is concerned,’’; he said. “It has been the biggest stumbling block to a real expansion of trade with the Middle East.” A cool-store complex was needed somewhere in the I Arabian Gulf to serve smaller ports on an entrepot basis, and he saw Bahraini as a possibility for this.

“The Government there is keen to see this type of development,” he added. During his visit to Iran, Mr Moyle toured a sheeprearing and processing complex at Shiraz, one of a planned 100 complexes to be established throughout the country to provide vacuumpacked chilled meat. He ■thought New Zealand could provide worth-while assistance in flock management, animal husbandry, disease i control and processing I plants. “I think our assistance I would have to be Govern-ment-to-Government, with the people we send carefully vetted to ensure they have practical experience and the ability to get alongside people,” Mr Moyle added.

The Minister would like to see similar assistance extended to Saudi Arabia, and it is planned to send a technical exports’ mission there later this year.