Agents promise to end lamb stockpiles on British market

Press, 25 January 1986, Page 7

Agents promise to end lamb stockpiles on British market

PA Wellington The five British agents who will sell New Zealand lamb in Britain this year have promised to end product stockpiles in that depressed market. The importers also pledged in Wellington to match the Meat Board’s sale last year of more than 100,000 tonnes and not to engage in price wars. The first clear sign of how this key market will be handled now that meat companies control sheepmeat exports emerged at a press conference held by the spokesmen from Towers, Borthwicks, Weddels, Associated New Zealand Farmers and the New Zealand Lamb Company.

The main elements of the strategy they have hammered out in meetings with the companies and the Meat Board are: • Planned lamb shipments updated to meet market demand. • To hold sales at present levels. • Compliance with New Zealand’s quota agreement with Europe. • To set flexible prices which provide a stable base for New Zealand lamb. • Co-operation with the board’s London office over generic promotion of lamb. • Individual advertising campaigns. Speaking for the agents, a Towers spokesman, Mr Ken Forshaw, expressed confidence in the plan. “I believe that we’ve got every chance of making a success of the operation,” he said. Planned shipments would prevent a repeat of last year’s stock build-up of about 40,000 tonnes of New Zealand lamb in British cool stores, he said.

The importers were keener to establish a sound market for the product than to boost shortterm volumes, he said. Price levels would depend on what alternative meats cost but it was in

their own interests not to drop them too far. “We all have a material stake in the success of the industry here and the exporter groups that we represent will be down on us like a tonne of bricks if anything like that happens,” Mr Forshaw said. Three of the agents represent New Zealand meat companies and the other two represent British concerns with investment in the meat industry. Mr Forshaw promised there would be no chance for the agents to make "fat profits” at New Zealand’s expense. The Meat Board’s chairman, Mr Adam Begg, who

has just returned from Britain, said the new regime would work if companies remained united over pricing and distribution. Mr Begg predicted a smooth transition over the next few months. The late killing season in New Zealand would give the board time to clear its British stocks before the bulk of the new product arrived. The industry had to start selling most of its lamb in consumer-ready form direct to end-users, such as the catering industry. “So long as we remain largely dependent on the carcase trade we face the possibility of further declines,” he said.