Comments inaccurate —meat group chief

Press, 14 January 1986, Page 33

Comments inaccurate —meat group chief

Some recent comments by Mr Bruce Anderson, chairman of the meat and wool section ' of Federated Farmers, are inaccurate, says the chairman of the Meat Industry Association, Mr Joe Ryan. “The meat companies have a responsibility to properly reflect marketplace realities into scheduled prices and after three years of Meat Board control it was necessary to make some changes as between individual grades of lamb to more accurately reflect our forward assessment of market requirements,” said Mr Ryan. “Values being paid to farmers today for sheepmeats are approximately equivalent to the values farmers were receiving from the Meat Board immediately prior to the cessation of Meat Board control. “Mr Anderson’s inference that companies should have been able to improve values as the result of ‘a substantial devaluation in the New Zealand dollar,’ indicates that he is out of touch with the facts. The reality is that the New Zealand dollar ex-

perienced a slight revaluation against the United States dollar in the time since Meat Board values were calculated. “His further comment that ‘the farmers are taking the risk and the companies the profit,’ was incorrect, Mr Ryan said. “Farmers are being offered an option by companies which they never enjoyed under the previous Meat Board arrangements. Farmers may now elect to avoid the risk and sell to companies or retain the risk and pool their stock. “I have also explained to Mr Anderson in the. past that it is ludicrous of farming leaders to be appealing on the one hand for cost efficiencies and on the other seeking to have individual by-product values ascribed to individual lines of stock from individual farmers. The cost of such an exercise would be enormous while the benefits would be virtually nil. “It is interesting to note that there was little public criticism from Mr Anderson or other farming leaders during the three years of Meat Board control of

sheepmeat marketing when substantial losses were accrued in the meat industry stabilisation account as against the so-called advance values paid to farmers. One can only conclude that the attacks now being made following a return of marketing of sheepmeats to private enterprise, when companies are offering to take the full risk against schedule values and thus protecting the farmer from the possibility of further losses, must be politically motivated. “This sort of unproductive point scoring is one of the problems besetting New Zealand and does nothing to move our industry towards what should be the common objective of all the constituent bodies, namely a united and concerted effort aimed at maximising skills available within the different segments of the industry. “I call upon Mr Anderson and other farming leaders to put an end to all this unproductive haggling and co-operate with the other sectors of the meat industry in pursuing clearly identifiable objectives,” said Mr Rvan.