N.Z. fishing told to grow up

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 3

N.Z. fishing told to grow up

Timaru reporter New Zealand must improve the quality of its fish exports if it wants to survive on the world market, commercial fishermen were told in Timaru yesterday. He had been in the fishing industry 20 years, and never had he seen fresh fish landed of the quality of fresh trawl fish on the Tokyo markets, said Mr R. S. Morris, manager of Feron’s Seafoods, Timaru. It was an indictment of the New Zealand fishing industry, he said. Mr Morris told the annual conference of the Federation of Commercial Fishermen — whose president, (Mr C. Spiers) endorsed the remarks — that such quality control could and must be done as a matter of daily routine, if New Zealand were to survive on new world markets. Price-cutting was another

i danger looming, said Mr Morris. “We have to grow up and realise that common standards and common prices are essential to orderly marketing,” he said. “Within the last 12 months, a consortium of New Zealand companies obtained a very good price for dressed fish in Japan, covering several shipments. “At the last minute, this ! order was cancelled because homebody else from New Zealand had made an offer ;40c per kilogram below I what had been negotiated.” This was more the ignorance of a newcomer on a new market rather than deliberate price-cutting, but nevertheless the damage was done because “someone had not done his homework.” The Fishing Industry Board now had the power to license exporters, but the country could ill-afford to absorb such mistakes.