Last days of Meat & Wool New Zealand Consultation

Last days of Meat & Wool New Zealand Consultation

Consultation on Meat & Wool New Zealand's future activities closes Friday 3 July, and farmers who have yet to make a submission or send in the feedback form are urged to do so.

Meat & Wool New Zealand Chairman, Mike Petersen says development of a final plan meeting farmer approval will be a challenge, but the more input from farmers the better.

"Across the country we are getting some polarised opinions and more feedback should make it easier to get a sense of where the majority opinion lies."

Mr Petersen says on some issues there is already a clear majority of farmer opinion.

"It's fair to say that the feedback so far from consultation meetings and the written submissions is that farmers want Meat & Wool New Zealand working for them across the industry. There is strong support for work in the market access and trade policy area, and also to invest in research collectively on behalf of farmers. Farmers have also given us a clear message that they want to retain the existing number of farmer directors and ward based electorate representation.

"Views are mixed on funding market development for wool but most farmers want to see a continuation of market development for meat with the organisation providing the "glue" for a common strategy in some key export markets for beef and lamb.

"So far, farmers are signalling they are not supportive of a large increase in levies, and there has been a lot of discussion at consultation meetings of a mix of levies and New Zealand Meat Board Reserves to fund special projects."

Meat & Wool New Zealand has set up http://www.consultation09.co.nz/ with an online submission form to capture farmer's views. Farmers can also post back the submission form sent in April with the consultation document.

Mr Petersen says the consultation round has been extremely valuable to assess how farmers are viewing the industry and Meat & Wool New Zealand's role.

"Farmers are clearly looking for more information about what we are doing on their behalf. There is also a strong call to be much more focused and to identify clear objectives for what we are trying to achieve and how we plan to measure these."

"A number of farmers have questioned whether there is duplication in activities with other organisations in the areas of research and representation. However this is not the case, with Meat & Wool New Zealand working to increase the size of the investment by working with others in joint ventures and collaborative projects. This is very evident in the area of R&D, market development and skills and education," Mr Petersen says.

"This isn't duplication, it's the practical outcome of a more collaborative industry."

Mr Petersen says the Board will have this same approach when developing the final plan, including a strategy to utilise the Government's Primary Growth Partnership fund alongside farmer levy investment.

ENDS

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