Works co-op welcomed

Press, 4 October 1979, Page 3

Works co-op welcomed

The Government’s decision ] to allow the use of meat in- 1 dustry reserve account funds . to enable the Kaiapoi works : of N.C.F. Kaiapoi, Ltd, to be i taken over by farmers in ■ association with the Christ- • church firm of C. S. Stevens ; and Company, Ltd, was wel- < corned yesterday by North 1 Canterbury farming leaders. The chairman of a com- 1 mittee representing farmers in Marlborough and Canter- ; bury which has been nego- • tiating over the acquisition of Kaiapoi. Mr E. W. Turrell, said the intention was that the Meat Board, to I which the funds had been released for the purchase of the shares in Kaiapoi, would sell the shares to a farmers’ co-operative, in which 80 per cent of the shareholding would be held by farmers and 20 per cent by Stevens. . Mr Turrell said that great advantages were seen for farmers in the partnership with Stevens, in that it. would provide meat-cutting expertise and marketing skills for which it had a reputation. It was intended that, the co-operative would have a marketing arm that would take maximum advantage of further processing of the product and the export incentives that were open to the industry for further processing. He was confident that the association of farmers with Stevens would be “a far better bet” than farmers owning the works by themselves, said the president of

North Canterbury Federated Farmers (Mr G. E. Rennie) i ; A main aim of farmers in seeking the acquisition of Kaiapoi was that thev wanted more competition in the meat industry locally, 1 and the marketing expertise of Stevens would be a big help in this direction. It was hoped that it would | be possible to increase the length of the killing season, as Stevens wanted meat alb the year round. He believed: that it would also be pos-f sible to offer a pool service! to farmers for marketing their stock. At present he was not in la position to say what the conditions- about shareholding in the new company would be; but shares would be available to farmers, and farmer support in taking up these shares would be required to enable a co-oper-ative company to be formed with Stevens. The chairman of the meat I and wool section of North! Canterbury Federated Farm-i ers (Mr M. R. Murchison)! emphasised the competitive; element involved in the! development. The. proposed association! with Stevens must i strengthen the proposition I greatly' and create in the future’ a very’ strong source of competition in an area in which this had been sadly lacking for a long time, he said. The establishment of a cooperative to run the works would provide a challenge to farmers to take part in the industry in the future.