Malting price out soon

Press, 17 June 1988, Page 16

Malting price out soon

The contract price for malting barley for the Canterbury (N.Z.) Malting Company is expected to be announced in three or four weeks. The general manager, Mr Robert Davison, said talks were being held with growers and the contracts should be finalised in several weeks. The chairman of MidCanterbury Federated Farmers arable section, Mr Robert McDowell, said early indications

from a meeting between growers and the company were that the seed price would be lower this year and the contract price would at least remain at last year’s level. There was likely to be no change to the grading specifications or to the storage increment. The legality of a clause in past contracts has been questioned by Federated Farmers. Mr McDowell, said the federations’ lawyers considered previous con-

tracts, which required growers to purchase their seed from the malting company, to breach the restrictive trade practices section of the Commerce Act. Mr McDowell said there were other companies which had similar clauses but these had not yet been raised ‘with them. Mr Davison would not comment on the clause until the new contracts had been finalised and released.