Mr Moyle discounts European farmers’ fears

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 7

Mr Moyle discounts European farmers’ fears

By

PETER O’HARA

NZPA London The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Moyle, said yesterday a valuable part of his European tour was discounting fears that New Zealand would take advantage of E.E.C. production cuts.

Mr Moyle completed his swing through Europe when he departed from Ireland saying he had reassured his hosts their sacrifices would not be in vain.

“The greatest fear we encountered, which we were able to discount considerably, was that New Zealand somehow was going to join forces with other countries and take advantage of the reduction in production in Europe and come in and fill the gap,” “I was able to point out to them that under the new regime we have in New Zealand today the

reduction in production that has occurred in the last two years in respect of sheepmeat and dairy production is likely to be continued.” That, he said, was "simply because the incentives to increase production, irrespective of profitability, are no longer there.

“I think there was quite a bit of relief expressed by Ministers and by farming groups... that was a fairly valuable aspect of the discussions.”

Mr Moyle said farmers and Ministers had been particularly worried about the United States and New Zealand putting more dairy products on the market. “Our view of the international marketplace is that in none of those cases is it likely to happen. "Although production in tfee United States probably will increase 1 per cent in the next year their coil-.,

sumption is increasing by about 2 per cent annually.”

The Minister ended the European leg of his trip by visiting one of the most difficult E.E.C. countries from New Zealand’s point of view. Ireland has often frustrated New Zealand trade access because it competes in the same agricultural products. Mr Moyle met the Irish Agriculture Minister, Michael O’Kennedy, for the first time, along with local Dairy Board and Farmers’ Association officials.

Lobbying in Ireland is especially important to the New Zealand Government with European butter access due to be renegotiated next year — by then it will be 74,500 tonnes a year and well under half that at the time of Britain’s entry to the E.E.C. Mr Moyle said Euro-

pean Ministers have yet to focus on the access question, but it had been put in perspective by the Irish Farmers’ Association president, Joe Rea. "I had it straight from the Irish farmers’ president that in terms of the European scene the New Zealand butter was not particularly significant... it was given an importance out of all proportion to its size. “That was a fair measure of the reality of the situation. There is some public posturing. “But given that we won’t be coming to the point of hard negotiation until well into next year, when the dairy industry in Europe will have settled down even further into the new regime of quotas, I think the climate will continue to ease from what was undoubtedly an almost belligerent atmosphere six months ago.”