POULTRY-KEEPERS HAVE EGG-MARKETING PLAN

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 277, 23 November 1945, Page 6

POULTRY-KEEPERS HAVE EGG-MARKETING PLAN

Important Discussions at Yesterday’s Conference

The second day of the Wellington Registered Poultry-keepers’ Association’s conference in Palmerston North yesterday was devoted to the discussion of an egg-marketing scheme devised by the association. Mr. A. W. Parton presided over a large attendance of representatives from the whole of the .Wellington Province. The scheme was explained by Mr. H. Knight, a member of the sub-commit-tee, who stated that the fundamental idea was to have a scheqie whereby the industry could be self-controlled when the Government control was removed. It was felt by the producers that it was necessary to have the plan ready to put into operation when the Government subsidy was lifted. If the subsidy were removed without there being another scheme to take the place of the marketing plan at present in force, the industry would be plunged into chaos. The salient feature of the suggested project was that it would promote cooperation between the producers and distributors, while protecting both parties. The plan was a type of socialism which was necessary to help the industry, said Mr. Knight, because some districts would need to make sacrifices for the good of the industry as a whole. The reading of the scheme took two hours, and at that point was tabled for discussion.

Speaking against the scheme, Mr. A. Miller (Hawke’s Bay) said that his area was a consuming rather than a producing area, and in his opinion the eggs produced were needed for the district itself. There were districts not producing eggs and the Hawke’s Bay Society was prepared to fight to retain the control of their eggs, which under the scheme proposed would be sent in part to one of the non-producing areas. Mr. E. J. Mathews asked what the districts with their own markets for their eggs would do when they had a surplus of eggs, an event which happened regularly. Would they pulp them, and if so, what would they do with the pulp? He could state with certainty that the district would not use its own pulping. At the same time, Wellington, a non-producing area, was on short rations of eggs. Would it not be better to send the eggs, under the proposed system, to the Wellington market?

Mr. G. W. Armstrong remarked that it was the duty of the producers and the industry as a whole to iron out their parochial differences. Under the proposed scheme the industry would have to accept the responsibility of the new proposals, but whatever scheme was arranged it should be one which would ensure equality fdr all producers. Poverty Bay could absorb its own egg produce on the local market to approximately 70 per cent, of the area’s output, but was willing to send to a fully consumptive and non-producing area as great an amount of eggs as possible. The problem of the non-producing area was the problem of all the industry in the Dominion, and the easiest way to arrive at a firm industrial basis was to assist the proposed pooling system to the utmost.

Mr. D. G. Begley, Government nominee on the Poultry Board, said that the consumer problem of to-day was the shortage; the producer problem of the near-to-morrow would be a surplus. Those districts which considered they had enough demand within their own areas to exclude the transfer of eggs to the Wellington market would find, when the producer problem arose, that they had need of the Wellington market. The day might come when those areas would experience a shortage. With the proposed scheme there would be egg funds to cover such a period. “Reserves,” said Mr. Begley, “are the essence of sound business. In Australia Mr. Blake, of the New South Wales Egg Board, built up a fund of £500,000 for the industry. I hope we in New Zealand can build up a like amount. I ask you to forward this scheme to the Poultry Board and offer it as a sincere attempt to assist Dominion markets.”

The motion was then put to the conference by Mr. Parton, that the scheme of marketing as outlined be sent to the New Zealand Poultry Board with a request that the sub-committee*, who prepared the report, together with the four producer members of the Wellington Egg Marketing Advisory Committee, be invited to consider the scheme in relation to a Dominion marketing scheme, and was carried without dissent.

In view of the infancy of the scheme and owing to the fact that it would take some time to be finalised and put into operation, it was resolved to request the New Zealand Poultry Board to approach the Minister to clarify the position regarding the duration of the Emergency Egg Marketing Regulations.

A second resolution, that the National Egg Marketing Advisory Committee be invited to consider setting up a reserye fund for protective purposes, was carried.