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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 18 February 1942, Page 3

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j AGREEMENT WITH GREAT BRITAIN J MEAT, BUTTER AND CHEESE Wellington, This Day. Arrangements made with the United Kingdom for the purchase of New ZeaI land's main primary products during j tin* period of the present war were outlined in general terms by the Minister of Marketing, Mr Barclay, in an ! address last evening. He said that though the agreements had not been I completed, the negotiations had reached a stage that, enabled him to indicate I the likely trend these agreements would . take. He said the long-term interests of the Dominion would be better served by a tendency to decrease export meat and butter production. dairy produce agreement Mr Barclay said the following were the major features of the dairy produce <l> Under the surpluses agreement, the United Kingdom Government agrees j to share equally with New Zealand the j financial responsibility for the produc- ; tion of lip to 160,000 tons of cheese, and up to 115,000 tons of butter, for the I duration of the war and one year | thereafter. (2) With regard to this season in! particular, the United Kingdom Minisj try of Food has agreed to a contract | quantity of 160.000 tons of cheese. In ! the case of butter, however, there will ibe no firm contract quantity lor this season, but the Ministry of Food will lift all they can and will pay for the quantity lifted at current contract prices. In addition, sale contracts have been made this year with the Ministry of Food covering 6500 tons of skim milk powder, 2000 tons of evaporated milk, 2000 tons of whole milk powder, and 1500 tons of condensed milk. "On the estimates of production so' far available, it appears possible that ( the Dominion will produce for export j this year 105,000 tons of butter and J 153,000 tons of cheese,” said the Min - | ister. In contrast to our export meat | production, dairy produce production j this year remains below the production objectives contained in the general surj pluses agreement. However, in the j case of butter, as with meat, the carryi over from last season remains outside I the surpluses agreement,and is the j responsibility of the New Zealand Gov- | eminent. This carryover stock amounts to 18.000 tons valued at approximately j £2.500.000. In addition, the Govern - i merit will share equally with the United • j Kingdom Government the financial re- | sponsibilitv of that quantity of butter which remains unshipped but which . , comes within the production objective determined by the surpluses agreement. On present estimates this is likely to ; increase the Government liability by t. further £1,000,000. STORAGE ACCOMMODATION "The cool storage accommodation for j butter has again been increased this j year, and by the end of March the total i capacity will amount to 65,000 tons. I On the basis of the shipping programme i indicated by the United Kingdom Govi eminent, we expect to have in store at the end of the present year 33,000 tons. If this assessment is correct, it is not j expected that there will be storage diffi - : culties over the Dominion as a whole ; j even during the peak period which will ! arise toward the end of next month, j “However, the storage position in i certain localities, and particularly I Auckland, will be subject to severe •strain during this period, and as with ; meat considerable expense will be inI curred in the transfer of butter to , ;! other localities where additional storage I space is available. The total storage (available for cheese now amounts to ; 54,000 tons, of which in an emergency approximately 12.000 tons may be used for the storage of butter. As there j was no carryover from last season, and i. : because of the United Kingdom Govern- j ment plan to purchase the cheese pro- !' duced this year, no storage difficulties!I are expected, provided our present! I shipping expectations are fulfilled.” |l ! i PRODUCTION PROGRAMME ! The Minister said it was obvious ] from the figures he had given that . there should be no programme of in- 5 creased production for either meat or , butter, but rather that production should at least be stabilised and re- ] duced by individual dairy and sheepfarmers wherever possible by addition- 1 al culling of their herds and flocks, j Furthermore, it might be possible for the farmers in certain districts to i divert production into other channels, j For instance, there was an urgent 1 1 need for greater wheat growing in ( New Zealand. “To sum up the position,” said 1 ’ Mr Barclay, “it can be said that the long-term interests of the Dominion would be better served by a ten- ; c dency to decrease export meat and j butter production, because the postwar possibilities facing both in- ] dustries will be largely influenced by the amount of accumulated pro- * duce in store at the end of the , emergency period, and if the stocks can be kept within reasonable j limits, the position of our export industries will he greatly strength- 1 cned. To offset the need for less production of meat and butter there is the need for a greater pro- £ duction of wheat, linen flax, cheese, and possibly other milk products 1 such as whole milk powder.”—P.A.