NZ Meat Board Offers Choice Of Beef Work Or Levy

NEW ZEALAND - Meat and Wool NZ is asking farmers to choose between slashing the industry board's work in the beef sector, or to pay a higher levy to boost NZ beef in North Asia.
calendar icon 2 July 2007
clock icon 2 minute read
A lower-than-budgeted beef kill in 2006/2007 reduced the levies collected from beef, and levy payers will be asked to reconsider the beef levy rate of $3.60 for each cattle beast.

A lower-than-budgeted beef kill in 2006/2007 reduced the levies collected from beef, and levy payers will be asked to reconsider the beef levy rate of $3.60 for each cattle beast.

Board directors will lay out the options at consultation with farmers at a dozen meetings round the country discussing the planning for the 2007-08 year.

Options include keeping the existing beef levy and slashing spending by $1.1 million across all areas of the business: discontinuing some beef marketing activity, some on-farm beef research and development projects, and reducing beef farmer activities, including cuts in the areas of skills and education, events and publications.

Or farmers could boost the levy to $4.40 to retain existing activities and provide additional funding for market development opportunities in Asia. The increase of 80c/head would generate an additional $1.874 million of revenue at current production levels.

The industry board's chairman, Mike Petersen, said today increased funding would allow Meat and Wool NZ to work with meat exporters to differentiate New Zealand grass-fed beef in North Asia.

The United States is re-entering the lucrative beef markets in Japan and South Korea after years of disruption because of BSE scares in North America, and is also looking to boost its sendings to China. New Zealand made significant gains in some Asian markets, such as Taiwan, while they blocked the entry of American beef, and while Australian production was constrained by drought.

Mr Petersen said the consultation with levy payers was also likely to attract a lot of interest in the sheep sector "given the challenges facing sheep farmers".

"It's been a tough couple of years for sheep farmers because of poor lamb returns and low wool prices," he said.

A recent lamb promotion in the United States was one way in which the board had re-directed levies to help positioning lamb racks as a premium product.

"This promotion will be matched by equal contributions from exporters, and we are confident of measurable returns to farmers," he said.

For wool, the Wool Industry Network was implementing a strategy to generate better returns for what should be viewed as a "niche fibre", Mr Petersen said.

Source: Yahoo News
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