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Meat company bosses were yesterday told to put aside egos and personality conflicts and make changes to an industry many farmers fear will not survive unless profits improve.
The major prize of a mega meat company may have eluded them, but 400 angry sheep farmers who met in Gore yesterday still expect competing meat companies, Dunedin's PPCS and Alliance Group from Invercargill, to initiate change to lift lamb prices.
Meat Industry Action Group (MIAG) chairman Keith Milne said the industry's future was at stake but was threatened by "a culture of hate and distrust" between the two co-operatives. Previous conflicts had to be put to one side, he said, and the companies focused on securing the future for themselves and their supplier-shareholders.
The meeting, called on Monday by MIAG, followed PPCS' decision last Friday not to sign a co-operation agreement requested by the Alliance Group, part of its plans to merge five companies into a mega meat company.
That company would procure, process and market 80 per cent of the nation's sheepmeat and venison and a portion of the beef kill, in a move designed to rationalise meat plants, invest in marketing and improve returns to farmers.
PPCS said it had reservations and that the promised $400 million in savings would not eventuate if Anzco and Affco were allowed to exclude their beef business as they requested.
Farmers were yesterday angry at PPCS' actions but also criticised Alliance, which last year declined to merge with PPCS.
Southland farmer Peter Black said he thought there would finally be some changes to the industry, only to see that hope disappear last Friday by what he called PPCS' "short-sightedness".
Fellow Southland farmer Russell Welsh echoed what many others said, that farmers had the power to push for change through their shareholding, power they had seldom used.
"The opportunity is here for us now," he said.
Shareholders in the two co-operatives were asked to sign authorisation forms which MIAG would collate and force PPCS and Alliance to call special general meetings and allow shareholders to air their views on industry consolidation.
MIAG member Peter Horrell said holders of 5 per cent of shares, or 300 to 400 farmers, could force a meeting, but just as importantly it would send a signal to the companies that farmers were serious.
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES
