Producer Boards Make Progress

The Government is pleased with the positive attitude and urgency shown by most producer boards in preparing for faster rates of change.

Food, Fibre, Biosecurity and Border Control Minister John Luxton said that in the three months since producer boards presented their reform plans, the Government and boards had been working together quite intensively, to understand the pros and cons of their various proposals for future change.

Mr Luxton was reporting on progress in the past three months.

'Nine producer boards presented reform plans to the Government at our request, in mid-November. Each of those plans was quite different. Not surprisingly, the rates of progress since that date have varied from one industry to another.

'Three boards, Hops, Pork and Raspberries, for example, put forward plans in November for deregulation. We are now well advanced with the preparation of legislation for the implementation of those three plans,' Mr Luxton said.

'In several other cases, by contrast, plans were not finalised by mid-November. The final plans of the Dairy Board and the Game Board, for example, were not scheduled to be ready until later this year.

'The Government, the Dairy Board and its owners are making good progress towards the establishment of joint working groups at technical and top strategic levels, to ensure that all of the issues relevant to future challenges will be addressed.

'Some other boards are starting out now on extensive consultation with their members over coming months. The Government shares that interest in hearing producer views through systematic consultation before decisions are taken.

'The Meat and Wool Boards, in recent weeks, have been reconsidering parts of the plans they put forward in November, with a view to obtaining a better reflection of the needs of their producers.

'The Kiwifruit Marketing Board proposed in November that the board should be 'corporatised'. In other words, it would be transformed into a statutory entity with features like a co-operative company, and growers would receive shares.

'The Apple and Pear Marketing Board made a similar proposal which included several other elements,' Mr Luxton said.

The Government supports the idea that growers'the real owners'should hold shares which properly define their rights, but thinks this should be done in a way which doesn't make the Government a party to the ownership structure.

'These are complex issues for growers to work through. The Government is encouraging and supporting all primary industries in coming to terms with the opportunities and challenges of the future, and will continue to do so,' he said.

'The stakes are very high. Overseas, customers are combining into larger and larger organisations. Rival suppliers are also aggregating. These trends are intensifying the level of competition on a global basis.

'In the past, New Zealand's natural advantages played a critical role in keeping our growers competitive in world markets, but rate of technological innovation is starting to play a much bigger role than nature in competitive advantage.

'Prices for traditional commodities are in long-term decline. The impact on rural communities is severe throughout New Zealand. At the same time, new kinds of opportunity are opening up, but they demand quite different approaches.

'The challenge is urgent. Ministers have asked each board to work with the Government on a co-operative basis, to ensure that all of the issues relevant to future success are identified, and are addressed as early as practicable.

'Our aim is to agree on a regulatory framework, for each sector, able to deliver opportunities for prosperity and growth to farming families and communities throughout New Zealand, and to make the maximum contribution to the total economy.

'Where competitive disciplines safeguard growers, the Government can withdraw from its present detailed intervention in industry affairs. Where monopoly elements remain strong, however, that option is not available.

'With good will and a shared understanding of these challenges, we should be able to work our way through these issues together. But progress is important. We certainly do not, in my view, have time to delay,' Mr Luxton said.