MEAT EXPORT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21361, 2 June 1939, Page 5

MEAT EXPORT

Control of Producers Advocacy by a Farmer By Telegraph—Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, June 1. Producer-controlled marketing of New Zealand mutton and lamb was advocated by the president (Mr I. L. M. Coop) in his address to the annual conference of the North Canterbury Provincial Farmers’ Union this morning. He suggested that sheep-farmers, if they adopted the orderly methods of the Dairy Board, would be much better off financially. While praising the good work done by the Meat Producers’ Board in regulating supplies and advertising, Mr Coop said that the benefits from this went to the purchasers of meat—the export companies. The sheep-farmer was still trying to carry on with the old speculative system of marketing. That was not the Government’s fault, for the sheep-farmer could have orderly marketing to-morrow if he liked to ask for it. By adopting Dairy Board methods, Mr Coop continued, the sheep farmer would receive an average price for the whole season. Overhead, felmongering, killing and freezing costs would be reduced considerably, and the farmer would be in a much better position.

“It is of no use saying it cannot be done, because it can,” continued Mr Coop. “We have a duty to our farm workers—the loyalest body of men and women in New Zealand—our bankers, stock and station agents and mortgagees, to sec that we are in a position to pay our way. Nobody is going to be hurt by this method. Let us get on with the job and bring confidence once again into the sheep-farming industry of New Zealand.”