Dalgety head finds 'air of confidence’

Press, 21 August 1978, Page 7

Dalgety head finds 'air of confidence’

PA Wellington “There is an air of quiet confidence among farmers and I think we can look forward to an extremely successful year,” says the group chairman of Dalgety

International, Ltd, Mr D, L. Donne.

“I’m quite bullish about the prospects for wool,” he said during an interview about farming prospects for the 1978-9 season.

Mr Donne said that a British textile company he headed (not part of the Dalgety group) considered the international wool pipeline was almost empty. It had brought forward its requirements for the next 12 months.

“A hardening of prices is expected.” said Mr Donne, whose father was born in Gore and qualified in medicine at Otago Medical School. Mr Donne was born in London and after working in merchant banking and on the board of several companies joined the Dalgety’s board m 1972.

“Dalgety is in the bust* ness of protein” he said. “New Zealand is the lowest cost producer of protein in the world. No group in the protein business can afford not to have a substantial investment in New Zealand.”

Mr Donne said that many people considered that this was a world of difficulties for the international trader but he took the view that it was a world of opportunities.

“Those of you who live in New Zealand are very

fortunate. But you tend to underplay what you have already achieved. ’’ Commenting on European Common Market plans for sheepmeat regulations, Mr Donne said: “Never under-estimate the good will to New Zealand and to New Zealand products that is present in the minds of British housewives.”

“My personal view is that the balance in the sheepmeat question is in favour of New Zealand. But we mustn’t be complacent.”

As for the future, Mr Donne said, the group’s aim was to extend the farmers’ range Of income by extending his activity from animal protein into vegetable protein crops, edible oils, starch derivatives, and hybrids development.

Mr Donne gave as an example the great strides that have been made in maize over the last eight years. Dalgety’s now had about 36 per cent of the New Zealand export market, he said. There were about 450 M under-nourished people in the world. The develcrping (Third World) countries •were only just keeping up and they would have to double their food production by the year 2000. This was where Dalgety’s and New Zealand fitted in, Mr Donne said.