N.Z. lamb marketing plan criticised

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 7

N.Z. lamb marketing plan criticised

PA . Auckland A leading British meat retailer believes New Zealand is setting up its own hurdles to the British lamb market. He is Mr C. S. Cullimore. managing director of.. the large Dewhurst chain which has 1400 butchers' shops throughout Britain and which handles 30,000 carcases of New Zealand lamb a week.. Mr Cullimore, who is highly critical of the timing of the marketing plan now agreed to by the New Zealand Meat 'Board and the exporters, said in Auckland that the plan could result in market prices for lamb which were not competitive with other products. This, he said, was likely to result in reducing the volume of lamb which would be sold.

“What you tried to do this season has not been satisfactory, and now for the new season you are about to bring in a new’system aimed at controlling the price on a flooded market,” Mr Cullimore said.

“You are doing it against a background of a 50,000-tonne New Zealand lamb carryover, the largest British lamb flock ever, a surplus of poultry from Europe, the certainty of turkeys coming

in from France, and the highest british beef number since 1978. “What you need is the marketing expertise and involvement of traditional trading companies rather than the rigid pricing suggestions implied in the New Zealand marketing plan.” Mr Cullimore said that as a British meat retailer he was concerned about the flow of ;New Zealand lamb and its ; ready sale rather than New Zealand’s' domestic cost problems. In the world today the real price I was what someone would pay in the market, not the cost of production. If someone tried to insist on getting the cost of production, the buyer would say, “Keep your lamb.” He was pessimistic about the shorter-term outlook for New Zealand on a market where highly priced lamb was now bottom on the meat popularity list, but he was optimistic about longer-term prospects provided New Zealand did not weaken its position in the meantime. Lamb was now facing intense competition from poul-

try and pork which was half the price at a time of plentiful grain feed. While this was happening the British farmer was getting about $BO a lamb. Half that amount was coming from a taxpaj’er subsidy and it had created the biggest British lamb flock ever. ■’ In five years from now. Mr Cullimore said, the British lamb flock would be significantly lower than it was now and it would be a great pity if New Zealand was not strongly in the market to take up the slack. He believed that under any circumstances there would always be a market in Britain for about 130,000 tonnes of New Zealand lamb as against the 189,000 tonnes shipped this year. ■ In five years there could be a market for 150,000 tonnes, which was about the quantity envisaged when Britain entered the European Economic Community. Then, if New Zealand retained a strong market in Iran, the New Zealand lamb producer would be back in a strong position.