Surplus E.E.C. produce to be dumped—report

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 6

Surplus E.E.C. produce to be dumped—report

From

ROBIN CHARTERIS

London correspondent A secret European Commission report says the E.E.C. plans to dump 60 per cent of its surplus food mountains on the world market during the next three years. Such a move would have a serious effect on New Zealand by depressing world prices for meat and dairy products, and by reducing or eliminating potential markets. It would also breach a long-time agreement by the E.E.C. that in return for New Zealand’s reducing its meat and dairy quotas to Europe, the E.E.C. would do nothing to affect other possible markets for the produce. The report was published by the Observer News Service on the eve of the meeting in London

this week of commissioners of E.E.C. agricultural producing countries that is expected to announce reduced European farm prices for the coming year. It indicates that butter, beef, wheat and skimmed-milk powder valued at SUSS.S billion will be dumped. The action will cost Community taxpayers at least 5U52.75 billion, according to the report, which was compiled by the Dutch Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Frans Andriessen, and his Danish colleague, Mr Hemming Christopherson, Commissioner for the E.E.C. Budget.

The E.E.C. has embarrassingly large and costly food mountains that include 1,001,000 tonnes of butter, 798,000 tonnes of beef, 12 million tonnes of wheat, and 525,000 tonnes of skimmed-milk powder.

New Zealand sources said in London last evening that there had been talk recently of a 200,000 tonne butter deal between the E.E.C. and the Soviet Union as well as one or two beef deals, but nothing as big as the dumping of 60 per cent of the entire E.E.C. food mountains, which would have a very serious effect on New Zealand. They sugggested that the report could have been leaked to soften up the European agricultural lobby for what would be a “barren” set of farm price proposals for this year. There have been suggestions for some time that the European Commission will seek to reduce prices and lower farm production in the realisation that the growing food mountains must not get any larger.