THREE-YEAR SCHEME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1938, Page 8

THREE-YEAR SCHEME

PIG AND BACON INDUSTRY BASIC PRICE AND COMPENSATION A three-year scheme for the pig and bacon industry, which is expected to cost about £1,000,000 a year, was outlined by Mr W. S. Morrison, Minister of Agriculture, in the British House of Commons recently. Legislation has been introduced to give effect to the proposals. Mr Morrison said it was proposed to reconstitute the Bacon Development Board, and to give the board wider powers of co-ordination and of policy control. The board were preparing a scheme of factory rationalisation with the object of reducing the number of curing units and introducing higher and more uniform standards of efficiency in bacon production. The method of sale of pigs to curers on annual contract would be restored. The Government’s proposals for a period of three years were:—

First Year:—Pig producers would receive for pigs of a prescribed standard a basic price of 12s 6d, a score deadweight when feeding stuffs were at 8s 6d per cwt. Curers would be compensated from the Exchequer if bacon prices fell below a national price of 94s 9d per cwt. Pig producers would be compensated if feeding stuffs rose above 8s 6d a cwt.

Second Year:—Basic pig price would be reduced by Id per score, and the bacon price by Is per cwt. Third year:—Price for pigs would be reduced by a further 2d per score and the bacon price by a further 2s per cwt.

If, during the three years’ period, the cost of the feeding stuffs fell below 8s 6d per cwt., or bacon prices were above the figure, there would be a corresponding recoupment by the Exchequer.

The number of pigs that might be assisted would be 2,100,000 in the first year, 2,400,000 in the second year, and 2,500,000 in the third. It would be a condition of assistance that the industry should finance an approved programme of research education with the object of reducing costs of production. The cost would depend on certain unpredictable factors, but on certain assumptions it might average approximately £1,000,000 a year. The Government commended the proposals as being calculated to assist the industry to reduce its costs of operation, attain a higher level of efficiency, and put itself generally on a self-supporting basis.

When interviewed on this development by a representative of this paper, Mr W. A. Phillips, chairman of directors of the N.Z. Co-op. Pig Marketing Association, Ltd., said that producers in New Zealand could view this scheme with general satisfaction, since the only alternative from the viewpoint of the British Government was to open the door to foreign imports of bacon, which for the last three years had been subject to a rigid quota. “Any British scheme” said Mr Phillips, “which is designed to encourage British production by protection from foreign imports of bacon must automatically protect the interests of pig producers in New Zealand, since the price offered for its exports of bacon pigs has always been governed by their value in terms of bacon on the English market.”

“The object of the British scheme is to stabilise the price of pigs for their producers, and the levels fixed, both in respect of pigs and their manufactured products, are such as will ensure a continued profitable market for our frozen exports which now enjoy a free and unsatisfied market in Great Britain.”

“The reorganised scheme will date from July 1, and has been fixed for a period of three years. It is, therefore, to be hoped,” concluded Mr Phillips, “that the opportunity thus afforded New Zealand producers for the sound continued expansion of their exports of bacon pigs will not be overlooked.