Pork industry upset by freeing of imports

Press, 29 December 1986, Page 10

Pork industry upset by freeing of imports

PA Wellington The pork and bacon industry has attacked the Government for removing restrictions on pigmeat and pork products imported from Australia. The Association of Bacon Curers and Meat Processors said on Tuesday that the short-cir-cuited removal of quarantine requirements without consulting the local industry spelt disaster. The decision to abolish the previously stringent pigmeat importation requirement had absolutely “nothing to do” with the present shooting of New Zealand pigmeat which was caused by an infertility problem, said the association. The association’s president, Mr lan Bradford,

said the industry had stumbled over the change and was horrified by its implications. “The sow infertility problem which has caused a shortage of Christmas hams in some areas will pass. This bureaucratic bungle will not,” he said. The industry had been given no opportunity “to adjust to a totally new trading environment” which could mean the end of the present curing and smallgoods industry. “There are no limitations now on the importation of pigmeat from most Australian states, and New Zealand can rightly be seen as ripe for the picking. We have been given no lead time on this as the change made by

people who clearly have not assessed its impact on the industry,” Mr Bradford said. ’ The association has made representations to the Government against the lifting of the two important quarantine requirements. Mr Bradford said it was totally unsatisfactory that the Government had pleaded ignorance of the actions of its agencies. The bacon-curing and smallgoods industry gen-: erates about $2OO million in sales each year and employs an estimated 3000 people.

The New Zealand industry was hampered by, the high cost of feed for pigs, a problem not arising in Australia, said Mr Bradford.