Meat marketing at crossroads

Press, 18 June 1982, Page 8

Meat marketing at crossroads

From

HUGH STRINGLEMAN,

in Hamilton

It is a fallacy to think that technology alone will keep the New Zealand meat industry profitable, according to 'Dr A. K. Fleming, acting director of the Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand, speaking at the annual Ruakura farmers' conference this week.

“The over-riding considerations may well be unexpected ones, such as world political events and changes in society, which can lead to a loss of interest in whole meat,” he said. Dr Fleming questioned whether New Zealand was taking into- account in its marketing strategies a dramatic rise in single person households in Britain, now over 25 per cent of all households, or that 14 per cent of all families are supported by just one parent, or that half of the British housewives now go out to work.

“These are people looking for economic convenience foods not the traditional roast or lamb chop. “I suggest that our early maturing lambs, especially bred for the British housewife, may not have an assured future in even the traditional United Kingdom market-place let alone the new markets on which our future increasingly depends," he said.

Dr Fleming argued that the common agricultural policy of the European Economic Community may

in the long term not be sustainable. But as New Zealand was now prepared to subsidise its own farming industry, by way of supplementary minimum prices, the country must be very careful not to prejudice trading arrangements through subsidies, nor to think that in the long term they were sustainable policies.

“The economic downturn in New Zealand has brought the country to a crossroads. The future of our own primary exports must be considered in the light of the dedication of industrial nations to be self-sufficient in food whatever the costs.

“The long term viability of the meat industry must be guaranteed by means other than subsidies, which conceal the realities of underlying problems.

“We can protect our smaller industries and employment opportunities by concessional tariffs and import quotas, but where will the revenue to support our larger industry come from?

“In simple terms I would suggest that the price for any significant on-going subsidy for our largest industry and major earner of export income would ultimately be too high for the community to accept.

“Unless the underlying problems encountered in marketing our produce are solved our- salvation through

new technology or added processing may well be illusory." “Efficiency, product quality, added value processing and diversification are all key areas which can determine the potential of the meat industry in New Zealand to survive," said Dr Fleming.