AFFCO tries new tack

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 402, 3 September 1991, Page 3

AFFCO tries new tack

The AFFCO objection hurdle has been removed feom the path of the de' elopment of Raeiihi's proposed meat processing plant. The next hurdle which faces the developers is the gaining of a meat exportmg licence, with the meat industry having formed a Meat Planning Council who will, among other things, be

charged with considering export licence applications. The Meat Planning Council is to look at the whole meat producing industry in the light of the over-production capacity around the country. AFFCO, who had forced a new hearing on the district planning scheme which the

council had passed in order to allow the development of a plant, has withdrawn their objection, but they have not given up expressing their opposition to new meat industry capacity, such as the proposed Raetihi plant. In a press release from AFFCO last week, chief executive Jeff Jackson said the company was

now pursuing "a new strategy and actively encouraging regional investment in some of its works, including Taumarunui". Mr Jackson said AFFCO had objected to the Raetihi plant because the "proposed additional plant

threatened the viability of the small AFFCO plant at Taumarunui and associated employment". Ruapehu mayor Garrick Workman said this week that he did not accept that the Raetihi plant would adversely affect the Taumarunui plant. He said there was

only between two and four per cent of the Taumarunui plants stock coming from the Waimarino. He said he was pleased that AFFCO was looking to a joint venture project with local farmers to make the Taumarunui plant more viable.

AFFCO's new strategy "would offer regional investors opportunities to invest in regional plants" said Mr Jackson. He said improved, sustainable returns for producers would only be achieved through greater cost efficiencies and stronger investment in market and product development. "Over capacity is crippling the industry, starving investment and directly impacting producer returns," stated the press release. "The proliferation of additional capacity in recent years had now reached the point where every new increment in capacity further eroded industry profitability and placed extreme risk on funds invested in new capacity," it concluded.