Mr Maclntyre to see farm heads in Europe

Press, 27 October 1977, Page 13

Mr Maclntyre to see farm heads in Europe

Parliamentary reporter The Minister of Agriculture (Mr Maclntyre) will go to Europe next month to attend a Food and Agricultural Organisation conference in Rome and to spend a week in Britain as the guest of the British Government. During the month he is away, Mr Maclntyre will have separate meetings with the Ministers of Agriculture of France, West Germany, Britian, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Italy, and the Secretary-General of the O.E.C.D. Mr Maclntyre said yesterday that the F.A.O. meeting in Rome provided a “nonnegotiating" setting for the Ministers of Agriculture of member countries to review the world food and agriculture situation, to appraise common problems, and to seek possible solutions. On his talks with E.E.C. Ministers, Mr Maclntyre said, “My main object will be to establish a good rapport with those who take the decisions on access to the Community for New Zealand products. “No doubt specific questions about our products will arise in the course of my discussions, but on this occasion we will not seek to negotiate or to solve any particular problem. “I want to find out

what problems European farmers face and what they are doing about them, because we need to understand these things in order to protect our own interests. “Of course, I will talk to them about the problems our farmers face, too,” he said. Mr Maclntyre will be in Rome from November 10 to 17. While there, he will have separate talks with the Italian Minister of Agriculture (Mr Marcora) and the Danish Minister of Agriculture (Mr Dalsager). For the next nine days, Mr Maclntyre will be the guest of the British Government. He will have official talks with the British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (Mr Silkin who was in New Zealand recently as a guest of the Government), the Minister of Prices and Consumer Protection (Mr Hattersley), the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Lord G o r o n w y-Roberts), the Leader of the Opposition (Mrs Thatcher), and the Opposition spokesman on agriculture (Mr Peyton). Much of his time in Britain will be taken up with visits to farms and agriculture research centres, including the Internation Wool Secretariat’s research establishment at Ilkley, in Yorkshire, and

the National Seed Development Organisation at Cambridge. While he is in London, Mr Maclntyre will meet officers of the National Farmers’ Union, and will also meet directors of meat companies and shipping companies involved in the New Zealand trade. ' From London, Mr MacIntyre will go to Dublin to meet Ireland’s Minister of Agriculture (Mr Gibbons), and then to the Hague to meet the Netherlands Minister (Mr van der Stee). While he is in the Netherlands, Mr Maclntyre will see Dutch farming systems before going on to West Germany for a meeting with the West German Minister of Agriculture (Mr Ertl). After a day in Bavaria looking at aspects of farming there, he will go to Paris for meetings with the French Minister of Agriculture (Mr Mehaignerie), the secretary-general of the O.E.C.D. (Mr van Lennep), and the director of the O.E.C.D.’s agriculture division (Mr Simantov). Mr Maclntyre will return to New Zealand on December 9. On his visit overseas he will be accompanied by the Director-General of Agriculture (Mr M. L. Cameron), and his private secretary (Mr H. B. Hewett).