Government grant

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 20

Government grant

Sir,—ls it credible that the Meat Board would withdraw from sale to Britain, lamb at $4.70 a kilogram, to supply a Soviet order for mutton at 69.5 c a kilogram, as reported by Sue Hunt from a “concerned farmer” (February 5)? One is entitled to demand official confirmation of such a deal before accepting the unsupported word of Sue Hunt’s anonymous “concerned farmer.” Barry Fisher, director of the Afghanistan Refugee Foundation, seems to be labouring under the misappreprehension that Soviet troops are in Afghanistan as "invaders” when, in fact, they

are there as allies, without whom the Afghan people would now be languishing under a feudal-fas-cist regime imposed on them .by the United States. His shop-worn catalogue of atrocities attributed to Soviet troops exist only in the lurid fantasies of Western propaganda. — Yours, etc.,-

m. creel; February 12, 1987.

Sir,—Soviet soldiers may well be eating Canterbury lamb in Afghanistan, as Barry Fisher suggested (February 12). My information is simply that the sale of subsidised sheepmeat to the Soviets. was announced by Mike Moore;‘member of Parliament, in May, 1986. It involved 24,000 tonnes, valued at $16.7 million., At the time of sale, mutton was fetching $1.54 a kg in Britain; lamb $4.70 on that market. The Soviet Union was supplied with both mutton and lamb at 69.5 c a kg. The farmer who gave me these figures was; under .no illusion that the. deal was a "sale.” He saw it as an attempt by the Labour Party to show the declining value of agricultural exports. To him it was also a generous grant from the Labour Government, at the expense of New Zealand farmers, direct to the Soviet Union. — Yours, etc.,

SUE HUNT. February 14, 1987.

[The chairman of the Meat Marketing Corporation, Mr Athol Hutton, confirmed that New Zealand meat companies did sell lamb to the Soviet Union last year. It was included in a 24,000tonne contract because not sufficient mutton became available as the season progressed. At the time the Minister of Overseas Trade, .Mr Moore, announced the Soviet contract was worth $16.7 million, or 70c a kg, but Mr Hutton is still not prepared to discuss the actual pricing details. He added that New Zealand companies have no plans to sell any lamb to the Soviet Union this season. The Meat Board said that 13,754 tonnes .of lamb was shipped to the Soviet Union in the year to September 30, 1986, as well as 7892 tonnes of mutton. The value of meat shipments to that country in the year to June 30, 1986 (riot September 30), was $21.3 million. The agricultural editor, Mr Hugh Stringleman, comments that New Zealand companies were trying to “clear the decks” of an oversupply of lamb at that time. It cannot be construed that New Zealand withdrew lamb from the United Kingdom to send it to the Soviet Union for some political purpose. The Meat Marketing Corporation is a consortium of public and private meat companies set up to deal with single-buyer countries, such. as the Soviet Union and Iran. — Editor.]