Strike May Disrupt Meat Exports

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31087, 16 June 1966, Page 1

Strike May Disrupt Meat Exports

(New Zealand Press Association!

WELLINGTON, June 15.

Producer boards and trade officials fear the export of primary produce will be slowed from August if the British seamen’s strike continues.

The strike had gone on long enough to affect the arrival of imports for July and August, Mr D. Rose, economist in the overseas trade division of the Department of Industries and Commerce, said today.

A Dairy Board official said stocks of dairy produce in the United Kingdom were sufficient to enable the board to supply customers for some time.

“Our problem will be to obtain vessels to carry dairy produce to the United Kingdom from August onwards,” he said. July Sailings The Conference Lines had ships to make July sailings, but of the eight to 10 required for all types of cargo for sailings from New Zealand in August, only three were in sight. “It is already clear that when the strike ends, some ships will have to be sent out here in ballast. “There would not be time for them now to load in the United Kingdom, sail here, discharge and load, and still leave in August, assuming the earliest possible end to the strike.

“The longer the strike continues the greater will be its adverse effect on deliveries to our markets,” he said.

Wool Not Affected

The publicity manager for the Wool Board (Mr W. D. Grace) said the strike would not have a big effect on New Zealand wool producers. “We are almost at the end of the season, with only one more sale to go,” he said. “Although there are arrangements that would hold up payment to producers in the event of a strike, it hasn’t been found necessary to adopt these yet.” “New Zealand isn’t going to need more ships around the coast to save us from embarrassment of wool until mid-August, after the first winter sales,” Mr Grace Said.

“Wool growers are also meat producers so they share problems the strike may bring to that side of the industry.” The board understood there

were about a quarter of a million bales either in ships at present on the New Zealand coast or in wool stores. Meat Shipments A spokesman for the Meat Board said there had been no serious disruption of the shipment of meat from New Zealand.

If the strike continued much longer New Zealand could be seriously affected, he said. Mr S. J. Hills, Assistant Comptroller of Customs, said that the strike had had no effect as yet on the volume

of imports handled by his department.

The first vessel’s affected would normally be arriving

in New Zealand from now on and it was expected that the coining weeks would show a slackening in the volume of imports. “Special arrangements have already been announced regarding goods ordered on 1965-66 import licences and which have been held up in Britain," he said. "The position in relation to goods to be imported on 196667 licences will depend on how tong the strike continues and on the arrangements made to ship the backlog of cargo when the strike ends