Community ‘beef Matiri well

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 21

Community ‘beef Matiri well

Radical plans to phase out a system allowing European Community (EC) farmers to sell beef into storage at guaranteed minimum prices are to be discussed today by com-* munity farm experts, officials said. Surplus beef — overall totalling 780,000 tonnes — is packing cold stores so tightly that some has to be stored in countries outside the commun-, ity. The draft proposals, which if agreed would certainly anger community beef producers, will end the “intervention payments" system in three years and impose tighter control on exports refunds. The refunds are used to bridge the gap between higher internal and lower world market prices and have soured the EC’s relations with meat exporting countries, such as Australia and . New Zealand, which accuse the group of unfair export subsidies.

t The Matiri No. 1 well, near i Murchison, was at a depth of > 869 m at 6 a.m. yesterday, Petrocorp reported. Drilling is > continuing. > Plessey rejects r The Plessey aerospace comi pany has rejected a SNZ3 Billion bid by General Electric i Company (GEC), saying it was not in its shareholders’ in- • terest, but said it was interested in making an offer for i GEC’s interest in the “System X” digital telephone exchange switching system which the two companies jointly produce. Plessey’s chairman, Mr John Clark, said the company was and would remain immensely strong and it was confident of significant future profit growth. This could only be achieved by Plessey retaining its independence.