Farmer to examine meat industry overseas

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 2

Farmer to examine meat industry overseas

A Canterbury farmer, Mr M. R. Barnett, of Dunsandel, will spend two months overseas later in the year examining the meat industry and markets, under the auspices of the Meat Board.

Mr Barnett, who is deputy chairman of the electoral committee of the Meat and Wool Boards and also senior vice-chairman of the Dominion meat and wool section of Federated Farmers, will go primarily to see a marketing trial of New Zealand lambs of the Omega grade, which have been discounted because of their “leggy”type carcases. The chairman of the Meat Board (Mr C. Hilgendorf) said that the trial involved a comparison of various methods of selling Omegas and the returns that they brought in comparison with other grades of lambs.

It was felt that spmeone should go from the com-

mittee, which was collaborating with the board in the trial, to see what happened in the United Kingdom. Mr Barnett was chairman of the committee, which had been set up at a meeting of electoral committee members and Federated Farmers representatives from Otago to Marlborough. The trial will also give Mr Barnett an opportunity to see other aspects of the meat industry overseas. Mr Hilgendorf said that on several previous occasions the board had sent farmer representatives abroad to get- a better knowledge of the world meat scene.

As well as visiting Britain and Europe Mr Barnett will see the Meat Export Development Company’s lamb enterprise in the United States and Canada, the Middle East market, and also Australia. Mr Barnett has served on

a liaison committee with the Ministry of Agriculture on meat hygiene matters and is a member of the newly established National Hygiene Advisory Committee. The Minister of Agriculture (Mr Maclntyre) has suggested that he might also look into meat hygiene while he is overseas.

Mr Barnett said he would like to see whether export slaughterhouses in Britain and Europe were up to the standards demanded of New Zealand and also the differences between export and local slaughterhouses.