Iraq rejects another load of N.Z. lamb

Press, 20 February 1980, Page 10

Iraq rejects another load of N.Z. lamb

PA Wellington The freighter Pacific Fruit is returning to New Zealand with its • 2000tonne load of New Zealand lamb worth $4 million, rejected after a month of negotiations at Basra Port, Iraq. Port authorities told the exporter, W. and R. Fletcher, that the condition of the 15-year-old ship had damaged the meat. However, a Ministry of Agriculture inspector, Mr A. Royal, who flew to Basra to inspect the shipment, passed it'as fit for human consumption.

An earlier 2000-tonne load in the Royal Lily was rejected in December after it was alleged that the meat became overheated at Basra. That shipment was also passed by inspectors when the Royal Lily returned to New Zealand.

Some of it has already been sent to other markets.

A third shipment of 2000 tonnes, also inspected and passed by Mr Royal at Basra, has been allowed to unload. Four more shipments to make up the 7000-tonne contract, worth abot $l4 million, have not yet arrived at Basra. Fletcher’s marketing manager, Mr Jones, said that he was keeping his fingers crossed for them.

The company had lost between $2.5 million and $3 million in freight and demurrage costs through the rejection of the two shipments, he said. The problem was definitely at Basra’s end, but the company was not taking any special action to prevent more rejections, which were minimal compared with the 15 or 16 shipments unloaded at Basra since Fletcher’s began shipping to Iraq in April, 1978.