Call for caution on rabbit farming

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 7

Call for caution on rabbit farming

Much more stud}’ must be made of the viability of rabbit farming in New Zealand, especially where export meat potential is concerned, according to Mi A. R. Mclvor, senior lecturer in farm management at Lincoln College. Mr Mcivcn and Mr R. Sandry, a Lincoln College student, told more than 100 persons at a meeting ai West Melton that many factors had to be considered in evaluating the prospects of rabbit farming including New Zealand's balance-of-payments deficit, the desire of many urban people to participate in agriculture, land use, and diversity of diet. The meeting wars sponsored by the New Zealand Domestic Rabbit Farming and Breeders’ Promotion Association. Mr Mclvor said that he was in “the pro-rabbit camp” but said that those expecting high immediate returns from such a venture might be disappointed. The demand for rabbit meat was hard to define, he said, France, Belgium, and Italy, among other countries, imported rabbit meat at present, but the market appeared to be dominated by the Chinese. Little or no demand appeared to exist in the United States for rabbit meat, possibly because of the “Easter bunny pet concept,” Mr Mclvor said.

Australia was an active exporter, mainly to European Economic Commun-

ity countries, but was having a hard time competing with the Chinese. “Historically. rabbit farming has always been regarded with promise, but has never lived up to that promise, - ’ Mr Mclvor said. He said that rabbits should be raised in much the same manner as poultry. rather than "range production.” New Zealand had about 40 breeds of domestic rabbit; initially it would have to import breeding stock and then develop its own line. rhe duaJ-purpose breeds, Mr Mclvor said, would be most economic. They can be used for meat and fur. feed would Or important m any rabbit-farming venture, both speakers said, and might cost as much as S2OO a tonne. Mr Sandry said that feed costs would be about 60 per cent of the total farming cost; it would cost about $2.47 to produce 1 kg of meat. Chinese rabbit meat, he said, now sold for about $2.61 a kilogram on the British retail market. Problems facing wouldbe rabbit farmers also included E.E.C. tariffs (about 11 per cent at present), and transport costs. Little mention was made of domestic demand. An attempt in 1973 to

have the Pest Destruction Council Act, 1967, amended to allow the rabbit farming and possession of pet rabbits was defeated in a Parliamentary select committee. However, the Minister of Agriculture (Mr MacIntyre) has since introduced. a bill, approved by the caucus, which would legalise farming and possession. It, too, will go before a select committee. and many proponents of the scheme hope it will be passed through Parliament this year, possibly by October. Rabbit farming supporters have been greatly encouraged by a recent meeting of the North Island Pest Destruction Boards’ Association at Auckland, which endorsed Mr Maclntyre’s bill. In the past most of the opposition to rabbit farming has come from pest destruction boards. The meeting ended with the admonition that the industry, if established, would have to be tightly controlled and that, in the immediate future, the fur market looked the more promising.