MEAT PACKAGING TRIAL

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33803, 27 March 1975, Page 12

MEAT PACKAGING TRIAL

The Meat Board is involved in an investigation into the commercial practicability of packaging meat in New Zealand for sale to the overseas retailer. Mr J. Daniell, chairman of the board’s product development committee, said last week that efforts in New Zealand to produce a first-class consistently graded carcase were often wasted in some overseas markets by very poor further processing and preparation. “Our objective is to produce a product that will maintain its high quality through to the housewife. In order to demonstrate the commercial practicability of such an operation we have invested on a 50-50 basis with a New Zealand-owned freezing company in a sophisticated skin packaging system. The estimated cost to the board over 12 months ts about 560.000. “We have carefully researched the market possibilities and identified market areas in Continental Europe. We do not consider that the United Kingdom is a promising area for this. At the sales end the board, through its LondonEuropean office, and the New Zealand companys

sales agent are working in close co-operation to market the product effectively. “We consider after a year at the most we will know whether it is feasible. “I will say now though that there is no guarantee of immediate financial success for this project. Indeed, at the present time the sale of lamb carcases is in general more profitable than lamb cuts. The escalation of our processing costs here in New Zealand has made the economics of further processing very doubtful. “Yet if we are to develop more sophisticated markets where quality is important and obtain increased overseas earnings innovative methods of marketing must be tried,” said Mr Daniell, who added that the board was about to appoint a quality control officer. • The' Meat Industry Research Institute and some freezing companies had successfully found ways of restructuring low value meat products like beef trimmings and mutton into potentially high value portion-controlled patties and steaks, he said. Such items could have a ready market in the growing world catering market, but because of overseas hygiene regulations access to the markets with the most potential for these products was denied to New Zealand.