Prospects for lamb

Press, 20 August 1976, Page 2

Prospects for lamb

Wellington reporter Lamb prospects for the coming season are satisfactory, but beef prospects are “by no means the brightest,” says the chairman of the Meat Board (Mr C. Hilgendorf). He told the half-yearly meeting of the board’s electoral committee in Wellington yesterday that there was unlikely to be much improvement in the United States beef market until the high rate of domestic cattle killing eased, and there was little hope for better prices in the immediate future. Lamb prices in Britain, while not keeping up with inflation, had kept at satisfactory levels, he said. The strong world demand for lamb this season had shown in substantiallyincreased sales to other markets, notably the Middle East. Greece, Europe, and North America, Iran and Iraq had bought a total of 32,000 tonnes of lamb which, with modest sales to Syria and the Gulf States, made the Middle East the biggest market outside Britain for New Zealand lamb. With the continuing strong demand in North America, the projected drop in British beef and sheepmeat production, and reasonable growth

in sales to Europe, the omens were good, Mr Hilgendorf said. In the short term, preference would be given to the British market, despite all that Britain seemed to be doing to discourage New Zealand: a depreciating currency, and a punitive 16 per cent duty this year, rising to 20 per cent from next July. But in the “very long run,” the market that paid the best price would have to be supplied. The outlook for mutton was difficult to assess, but producers should not expect

too much in the coming season. Mr Hilgendorf criticised the attitude of freezing workers to the introduction of new equipment and methods. They were demanding that a generous proportion of the wages formerly paid to workers displaced should continue to be paid, in higher rates, to the remaining workers in a department, though those displaced had been reemployed elsewhere and had suffered no loss of wages. This meant a disproportionate share of the reward for improved productivity was going to the employees.