Rural tour for U.K. Minister

Press, 16 February 1984, Page 2

Rural tour for U.K. Minister

PA Wellington The British Minister of Agriculture, Mr Michael Jopling, will visit a variety of agricultural industries during his week-long trip to New Zealand next week. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Maclntyre, said yesterday that as this was Mr Jopling’s first visit to New Zealand as a Minister, the Government wanted him to see both the scale and efficiency of farming in New Zealand.

Mr Jopling previously visited New Zealand in 1978 with a party of Conservative members of Parliament.

“He is one of our strongest allies in our fight to retain access to the British market, and we want him to see what is at stake here,”

Mr Maclntyre said. Mr Jopling will arrive in Auckland on Saturday and after a week-end at Rotorua will visit a kiwifruit orchard. He will then fly to Taranaki where he will visit a dairy farm, a dairy factory, and a freezing works. On Tuesday, February 21, after visiting a Wanganui hill-country sheep farm, he will fly to Wellington for a round of meetings with Cabinet Ministers, producer boards, and Federated Farmers.

On Thursday, February 23, Mr Jopling will visit a seafood processing plant and an apple orchard at Nelson. After sightseeing at Mount Cook and Queenstown, he will visit a sheep and deer farm at Manapouri, a farm equipment manufacturer at Dunedin, and the Ministry of Agriculture’s Invermay Agricultural Research Centre. He will leave New Zealand on February 25.