Merino claim denied

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 3

Merino claim denied

PA Wellington The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday denied Australian news media claims that it had broken a trade agreement by allegedly exporting Merino ewes to China. A Ministry official said no pure Merino ewes had been shipped overseas from New Zealand. The denial follows up a front-page report in the “Australian” newspaper yesterday claiming that China had taken delivery of several Booroola Merino females from New Zealand in contravention of an agreement based on Australia’s longstanding Merino export ban. “Some Booroola crosses have been sent to China,” he said. "But no purebred

Booroola Merino females have been exported to our knowledge.” The Merino breed committee of the New Zealand Sheepbreeders’ Association did not allow Merino ewes to be exported, said Mr Noel Woods, the association’s secretary. The association did not want to jeopardise the availability of Australian Merino genetic material to New Zealand breeders, he said. Mrs T. W. Tothill, secretary of the New Zealand Booroola Sheep Society, said none of her members had exported stock to China. Small numbers of sheep carrying the Booroola gene had been exported to North America, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.