Sheepmeat rendering to continue

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 1

Sheepmeat rendering to continue

By

MICHAEL HANNAH

in Wellington

Sheepmeat will continue to be rendered down until new markets and better uses are found for it, according to the Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, Mr Moore.

However, Mr Moore rejected a suggestion that New Zealand is producing too much sheepmeat. He told a post-caucus press conference yesterday that he and caucus committees were investigating possible uses for the 40,000 tonnes of sheepmeat at present being rendered down. A proposal that it be used as aid, particularly to African countries suffering from famine, was raised in the caucus but Mr Moore

said that the Government had to decide whether this was the best use of New

Zealand’s overseas aid budget, and whether it was what the countries actually wanted. Australia was a possible market for more meat, though it was not a solution to the problem. “The real issue I think is to find new markets and I hope when I go to China I will be able to take some meat industry people who will look at the potential of doing something there in a major way,” Mr Moore said. “Some stock will continue to. be rendered down, and that is something we do not

like. I mean, it is a horrifying thought that half the world is dieting and the other half is starving, and we have meat that we cannot quit.” The Meat Board was faced with limited options, Mr Moore said. It could sell the meat locally, and disrupt local sales, or it could get the meat cut and packed, and so displace what was sold already. “The real alternative in the long run is new markets and better uses of that product, and there are a number of deals that are being done in that regard.”