42lm IN LAMB SUPPORT

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32819, 20 January 1972, Page 2

42lm IN LAMB SUPPORT

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Jan. 19. The Meat Board’s price support scheme seemed to be working very well and he had no reservations about it, said the deputy chairman of the board (Mr C. Hilgendorf) today. To January 8, the board had bought more than half this season’s lambs at a cost of s2lm. About 7.5 m lambs have been slaughtered and the board has bought about 4m under its schedule of $4.50 for a 301 b carcase. , Mr Hilgendorf said the scheme had had its intended effect of keeping up the price to farmers. “We are still hopeful that realisations in Britain will bring us out of all this with only minimal losses,” he said. There were no indications yet of an upward turn in prices, but so far returns had not been unsatisfactory. “From now on, prices usually tend to sag but the British price might be influenced by the fact that there are fewer lambs on the market there,” he said.

The 22 per cent diversification figure, for sales to countries other than Britain, would apply to the board’s meat.

Agents appointed by the board to handle its meat have the responsibility of reaching the 22 per cent diversification level, or paying the penalty imposed of 2.5 c per lb. However, they may include the board’s meat with their own as a figure on which to base the diversification level. Levels of New Zealand lamb in store at Smithfield have reduced to a normal 22,000 tons or about half the 43,000 tons in cold store in late October.