N.Z. FARMERS MORE VULNERABLE TO PRICE MOVEMENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 May 1948, Page 5

N.Z. FARMERS MORE VULNERABLE TO PRICE MOVEMENTS

Primary Industry Basis Of The Country's Whole Economy

(Special N.Z.P.A. Correspondent) Received 6 p.m. LONDON, May 26 “The farmers of New Zealand are more vulnerable to price movements than those in most countries, owing to the Dominion’s dependence on its primary industries as the basis of its whole economy,” said Mr. Norman Perry, president of the New Zealand Federated Farmers, speaking at a plenary session of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers’ Conference in Paris.

New Zealand farmers felt, continued Mr. Perry, that the International Federation could do a great deal to help by bringing pressure to bear on Governments and other organisations to ensure not only that a maximum quantity of food was produced, but also that prices were stabilised.

New Zealand farmers did not want prices which bore too heavily upon the consumer, but they felt they were equally entitled to expect prices sufficiently high to ensure maximum productions. “Two fundamentals must be recognised,” said Mr. Perry. “Firstly, that we, as agricultural producers, have a duty to utilise our land so as to produce as much as possible; secondly, that Governments and consumers must recognise that we were entitled to prices which will give us stability and a feeling of long-term security. If these facts are recognised by all sections of the community, then I feel production all over the world can be increased.”

Mr. Perry said New Zealand farmers were very concerned by the problem of surpluses. In the past they had seen food destroyed while millions of

people all over the world had not had enough to eat.

Under-consumption , not overproduction, was the real cause ot surpluses. Hunger bced unrest, and New Zealand fanners were certain that unrest could only be checked by preventing hunger. "That is one of the things this federation can help to do,” said Jfir. Perry. "Some organisations look on food too much from a commercial angle, and not enough from the point of view of producers and consumers, Mr. Perry continued. “If this federation can do something to change this I am sure it can be of immense benefit, not only to farmers, but to the world as a whole. We in New Zealand are represented on the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, and are fully in agreement with the aims and objects of that great body. Though many thousands of miles separate us from Europe, we still want to do our part to help.” When Imperial preferences and the effect upon them of the Western Union and the Marshall Plan were discussed in committee, Mr Perry exercised his right, as member of tbe federation’s executive, to attend the committee meetings, though not himself a member of the committee.