Butchers deny pork price 'rip-off'

Press, 6 May 1980, Page 16

Butchers deny pork price ' rip-off '

Suggestions that retailers are ‘‘ripping off” both the consumers and pig farmers have been described as rubbish by Christchurch meat sellers. The chairman of the Paeroa district pig committee (Mr W. R. Davis) had said farmers could sell pork butchered and packed for the deep freeze at $2.50 a kilogram, and still make a profit of $2O a pig. ’ “Yet- the retail pripe of pork is quoted between $4.80 and $5.80 a .kilo- 5 gram.” he said. A Katikati pig farmer.

Mr J. C. Thomas, had said that until last week farmers were being paid $l.BO a kilogram for porkers. The farmer, paid the freight to the works, the killing charge was $lO, the cartage to the retailer might be another $l, the charge for cutting up was $7 — a total price of $2.25 a kilogram. “It is a plain rip-off to charge double that for the pork sold in shops,” Mr Thomas said.

However, Christchurch meat retailers said buyers were not being ripped qff for pork. The president of the Canterbury Meat Retailers’. Association (Mr C. W, Birch) said the prices quoted by the North Island farmers sid not ihclude the overheads of running a shop. “Nobody today can afford to over-charge because bf competition with other meats and because retailers, want to sell,” he said.

Mr B. Owens, the owner of Owens Quality Meats and vice-president of the Federation of Meat Retailers, said retailers tried to keep prices down to avoid consumer resistance. Pork was selling for $3.99 a kilogram in Christchurch shops. Mr W. D. Glass, the South Island producer representative on the Pork Industry Commission and the Pork Marketing Board, said he had checked retail prices of pork in Christchurch and thought buyers were getting a good deal. The mark-up made by retailers was justified by their overhead costs, he said.

Mr Birch said the figures quoted by the North Island farmers, which differed from the South Island figures, would be for direct selling. Pork in Christchurch was retailing at similar prices, and in some cases lower prices, than equiva-lent-quality cuts of beef. y The North Island farmers also said pig farmers would be forced out of business by the low prices paid to them. t “Our price has now dropped from $l.BO a kilogram to $1.70 and I do not think it has reached the bottom yet>” said Mr Davis. “We are now getting the same price as we got 18 months ago, and pig farmers were going out of business then. “From this week we will be getting $2O a pig less net, and that means we will be going into a deficit. Recent promotions in Auckland and Christchurch mean that I have been selling twice as many pigs. The demand is up, but the trade is dropping its price to us,” he said.

Mr Qwen said that retail prices would fall if farmers’ prices dropped. Farmers had been getting good prices for the last few months.

Farmers were paid for pigs weighed immediately after killing, but the pigs’

lost about 2kg by the time they got. to the butcher.

Mr Glass said he was not happy with the prices fanners were paid for their pigs. The top rate for top quality pork carcasses for.-.the last few was $1.64 a kilogram.

. “Pig farmers are not meeting the costs of production at all,” he said. • The pork industry was a high-cost intensive industry. Pigs copld no longer be fed on by-prod-ucts, he said.

. Farmers would have to get $1.90 a kilogram for pork and $l.BO a kilogram for bacon to sustain a reasonably efficient pork industry, provided costs did not rise further.

. Suggestions that the Pork Marketing Board might dump 10,000 frozen pigs were completely unjrue, said Mr Birch. The board had bought 10,000. pigs to keep pork prices up after $7 million of pork was privately imported, but the board hoped to sell some of the meat locally and export some.

If there had been a glut of pork on the market prices would have fallen to such a low level that farmers would be forced out of business, he said. There was room for some imports of pork, but the board wanted power to rationalise the quantity imported so New Zealand farmers would -have a market. Submissions had been made to the, Government to get such power, he said.

The secretary pf the Canterbury Trades Council (Mr L. G; Morel) said the trade union movement was becoming upsqt about suggestion? of food being dumped when there were many worthy causes to which it could be given. “We should be asking why this pork could not be released on to the domestic market for the public to have the advantage of a lower price,” said Mr Morel. He said that pork prices were well outside the range of the average worker. If it was not possible to release them on to the market because of the effect on prices, then the

board should sell them to hospitals, old people's homes, and orphanages'

“It would be a sin to dump it,” Mr Morel said. The Under-Secretary of Agriculture (Mr Talbot) said that concern being expressed about the profitability of New Zealand’s pigmeat industry appeared to pay little heed tq the consumer’s position or to the overall agricultural situation. “Comments by Opposition spokesmen may provide short-term comfort to pig producers but they ignore realities,” he said. “I cannot repeat too often that this country is facing major challenges overseas with regard to acceptance of our agricultural products. On all fronts we are involved in vital negotiations to lower trading barriers and eliminate protectionism. “Our campaign can have little credibility abroad if we maintain protection for our iocal.' market -while insisting that other countries drop their barriers.” Mr Talbot said problems of supply and marketing in the local pig industry must be viewed against this wider context. The present problems were not simply a matter of high pigmeat import levels, Mr Talbot saidLocal consumption of all meats was down 20 per cent in January. A further factor was the rising cost of grain. The member of Parliament for Kaimai, Mr C. B, Townshend, said that Ministerial talks would be held in an effort to find a formula to prevent a repetition of the pig meat surplus creating a price depression. Mr Townshend said the value to New Zealand of its pig industry was between $6O million and $7O million annually in overseas exchange savings. This made it important to the economy and justified its being continued. “The industry has brought in 10,000 pigs in an endeavour to stabilise the market and will, I am sure, get a favourable response from the Government for some further financial backing,” ne said.