Beattie rejects claims

Press, 19 April 1989, Page 2

Beattie rejects claims

By

DAVID LUCAS

The chairman of the Meat Industry Melton Association, Sir David Beattie, has rejected suggestions that farmers were being ripped off by meat companies in the prices paid for stock. The prices to farmers were consistent with returns received from the marketplace, Sir David told the Taihape Rotary Club last evening. In recent months, meat companies had been criticised by farmers for offering uneconomic prices for sheep and lambs.

Sir David suggested that because of the competition among buyers for the dwindling numbers of stock and the excess capa-

city in processing, farmers could be getting a premium on marked returns.

This was resulting in even the best-performing meat companies yielding a rate of return that would not be commercially acceptable in other sectors.

The natural tension between producers and the rest of the meat industry was at an all-time high, said Sir David. To an outsider, the industry seemed more preoccupied with internal matters than tackling the rest of the world.

Suggestions of a singleseller concept were viewed with scepticism by a large body within the industry. No organisation

could afford to procure stock at unrealistically jiigh prices, process it arid store it for up to eight months. Sir David said several recent developments should make sheep farmers optimistic and encourage them to stay with lamb production. These included the agreement in the G.A.T.T. discussions to freeze agricultural trade protection levels between now and December, 1990, and then to reduce them.

“This means that a floor has now been placed beneath our European Community sheepmeat exports, and the long-term threat of New Zealand incurring smaller tonnage quotas is removed.”