Lamb sales show loss

Press, 31 December 1982, Page 13

Lamb sales show loss

PA Wellington New Zealand lamb sales ta North America have shown a substantial loss this year, the first for a decade. The loss, to be announced officially early next year, might be as high as $1 million, industry sources have said. The Meat Export Development Company, the sole exporter of lamb to North America, declines to discuss its trading figures until the annual report is published. However, .Devco's manager. Mr Trevor Kerr, said

earlier tips month that it had been a bad year. Total sales were well down on last year, and unsold stocks were higher than last year. The company was budgeting to buy much less lamb in New Zealand during the 1982-83 year, export sources said. The main causes of the loss this year were a downturn in demand because of economic recession in the United States and strong competition from other meats. The' United States, which

normally takes about 60 per cent of the company’s export, has been a more difficult market than Canada. Sales in the United States for the six months to "March 31 were reported to be 40 per cent down on the corresponding period the year before. Mr Kerr would not say what sales had been like in the rest of the export year, ending in October. But the Meat Board's magazine, the "Meat Producer." says that North American sales performance was poor in 1982 and that

stocks in New Zealand had built up. The board’s figures for the 1981-82 year show a 43 per cent drop in lamb shipments to North America, from 25,402 tonnes the year before down to 14,440 tonnes.. Competition from cheap white meats such as pork and poultry has been building up in recent years, but became even more intense this year. At the same time, there was an increased supply of cheaper. American-produced lamb.