British lamb exports slow to a trickle

Press, 25 October 1980, Page 2

British lamb exports slow to a trickle

NZPA'correspondent London British lamb exports have slowed to a trickle as the new E.E.C. sheepmeat regime has to bite. .?-s ; the market adjusts to the newly implemented reigime, London commentators yesterday spoke of “utter confusion and chaos” and said British exports had almost disappeared. A -s. ikesman for the New Zealand Meat Board said the board was ;’, watching the continental market closely, hoping to take advantage of any shortfall in Belgium and West Germany. But in spite of the apparent efficiency with which the “clawback” provisions are apparently working, the board is still worried about the disruptive effect 'he new regime may have on the British market. Lack of exports is expected to mean an increased supply of home-produced lamb o n the United Kingdom market, and the higher domestic subsidies paid to farmers could also boost domestic production.

Writing in the authoritative “Financial Times,” Richard Mooney said the regulation had effectively closed off all markets inside

and outside the European Community with the exception of France.

Mr Mooney said the back” V.liich deducts E.E.C. subsidies from lamb being exported, had forced up the British price to most of Europe by almost $1 a kilogram. That gives British lamb an export price of about $4.45 a kilogram — still well below the French export price of m <re - than $5, but ‘ slightly above the Irish price. “It’s a. right pig’s ear of an arrangement,” a leading British exporter, Mr Richard Cawthorne, told Mr Mooney. “Britain was the world’s fourth biggest lamb exporter . ; . now it must be down to about . inety-ninth.”

The newspaper’s’ respected farming correspondent, John Cherrington, said the United Kingdom sheep market had entered the regime “in a state of utter confusion and chaos.” Farmers had held back lambs in expectation of the higher guaranteed prices to be paid under the new regime and market entries on Monday had been:. 50 per cent higher than a week before, leading to a drop in prices by almost $1 a kilogram.