Meat industry success ‘will depend on co-operation’

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34146, 6 May 1976, Page 21

Meat industry success ‘will depend on co-operation’

The future of the New Zealand meat industry was not good, a senior lecturer in economics at Lincoln College (Mr R. G. Pilling) said last evening. He told a meeting of the Canterbury branch of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand that there was a need for a coordinating body within the industry.

During the last 18 months Mr Pilling has been doing research on the conservation of fuels and energy in the meat industry. His talk was on the fundamental problems of the industry. Failure to communicate was one of the biggest weaknesses of the meat industry and in many areas communication was pathetically weak, he said. “I am convinced that the successful future of the meat industry depends upon a very high level of cooperation and mutual understandings by all participants directly and indirectly concerned with its future profitability. “I am not advocating State control of the industry but a great level of communication among private companies.” He said that the New Zealand Meat Board could not be the co-ordinating body

because it was made up of farmers. The focal points of the industry were the farmer, the processor, and the market, said Mr Pilling. “We have got to realise that when we are exporting meat all the people in the industry have got to get together as a team,” he said. “We have to aim at maximum efficiency in the industry as a whole and that can only be achieved by a high level of communication. “The New Zealand economy has a very high level of dependence upon the export performances of the industry. About 75 per cent of the total meat production is exported. More than 40 per cent of export earnings are by the meat industry. The industry’s failure to operate efficiently could have disastrous effects on the economy. “The main basis for the smooth functioning of the industry is a good system of marketing intelligence which will supply information to assist decision-making by farmers, processors, and associated enterprises.”

Marketing intelligence at the moment was substandard. It shoud provide information such as what New Zealand’s competitors were doing, he said. Competitors such as China and South America were too easily rubbished and the effects of competition from Australia was not taken into account enough, he said. Marketing intelligence would provide information on developments in the production of new products. “Beef, mutton, and lamb can be substituted by the natural products of pork and poultry, and of course vegetable protein and potentially in the long run by protein made from petrochemicals. The importance of income from our by-products is immense. “I have great difficulty in explaining to New Zealanders that new products do exist. In the United States 10 per cent of agruicultural produce has been replaced by synthetic products.” Information was needed on the changes in attitudes towards dietary requirements. Clear evidence of this was the rapid growth in demands for vegetable protein. One of the major problems facing the meat processor would appear to be his relationship with farmers and the supplies of animals from the farm to the works. The correct timing of these flows is extremely important to a parties, he said. “Industrial relationships of a high order depend upon really good lines of communication.” He suggested that employees should play a

.greater role in decisionmaking organisations. “The farmer probably 'operates in the most uncertain field of all “To varying degrees he will attempt to forecast future Government agriculture policies. His decision as to what to produce can be influenced by many flows of information including: feed back from the market about what product will be most profitable over an acceptable period of time; price expectations; information from government bodies and other organisations. “Farmers and carriers need to have more communication between representatives to establish standards and rules which will generate more efficiency.”