Farmers’ aid for Ethiopia

Press, 4 April 1985, Page 3

Farmers’ aid for Ethiopia

Wheat growers in the lower South Island are largely responsible for the success of “Operation Hope,” New Zealand’s aid effort to Ethiopia and Sudan. "We have them to thank in large part for this being a successful venture,” said Mr Jerome Ellis, the Foreign Affairs Department representative on the operation’s steering committee yesterday. With the Dairy Board’s refusal to give “reasonable concessionary terms” on milk produce, the shipment looked destined to fall short of aid organisation

requests. Although the amount of milk powder supplied by dairy co-operatives and other agencies amounted to $290,000, that was well short of the steering committee’s original target. The shortfall in relief supplies was made up by $750,000 worth of bulk and bagged wheat, the last of which will be loaded in the Ngahere at Port Chalmers today. Growers from Southland to Canterbury, under the auspices of the United Wheat Growers’ Association, contributed most of the grain.