‘Shattering news’ on E.E.C. lamb

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 26

‘Shattering news’ on E.E.C. lamb

NZPA staff correspondent London It was “quite shattering” that the same E.E.C. policies which had produced huge dairy surpluses were being applied to lamb, said the Associate Minister of Finance, Mr Falloon, in London. The Common Agricultural Policy meant lamb production was being subsidised at uneconomic prices, he said. There was no justice in making the European consumer and taxpayer subsidise high prices for food products and then dumping those on the world market to make it even more difficult for producers such as New Zealand to compete.

Mr Falloon, who is on his way to attend the Asian Development Bank meeting in Amsterdam, said that “this is economic absurdity and, in my view, along with the sugar policy and many other C.A.P. policies, will not help the European Economic community to recover its industrial competitiveness.”

If a trading bloc like the E.E.C. wanted to be efficient and maintain the good will of its trading partners it had to adopt more sensible policies for producing and marketing agricultural products, he said. Mr Falloon said that while there were political difficulties in doing this,

there would be even greater problems in future if European taxpayers were forced to transfer jobs from efficient industry to noncompetitive production of products which were readily available in world markets at much lower prices.

The Press Association reported from Wellington that in spite of generally sluggish demand for red meats at wholesale and retail in the United Kingdom, the performance of New Zealand lamb has been quite encouraging in recent weeks.

So far, April sales had slightly exceeded off-take projections which has prompted the Meat Board to marginally increase guideline prices for main grade items. Much bigger offerings of manufacturing beef from New Zealand and Australia filled the United States market and put further pressure on prices. The offerings were for May, June, and July arrivals and came after more than three months of shortage. Importers reported a spread of prices, and falls of around 2c a pound were recorded over the whole range of cuts. New Zealand bull beef averaged SUSI.II a pound c.i.f., while cow beef averaged SUSI.O6 a pound c.i.f.