Federated Farmers Say German Scrapie Agreement Not Good Enough

Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre Chairman Chris Lester said the measures agreed to by Meat New Zealand with the German meat marketing organisation CMA are disappointing.

"On the surface they seem quite good but they rely on the hit and miss approach of the general media. A simpler solution would have been to deliver a glossy A5 brochure with a NZ Lamb recipe on one side and our scrapie free status story on the other side," said Mr Lester.

"Such a brochure could easily have been delivered to the 32.5 million German households that have received the erroneous and commercially damaging information about the health status of New Zealand's sheep flock provided by the CMA."

Meat New Zealand has reserved the right to seek redress in the event that the offending statement has an adverse impact on New Zealand's performance in the German sheepmeat market.

"It is equally unsatisfactory to have to rely on a convoluted legal process to seek redress for the undoubted damage that will be caused by the CMA's sloppiness and misinformation."

"A letter will be delivered personally to Mr Sonnleitner, President of the German Farmers' Union and a member of the Board of the CMA, on behalf of New Zealand farmers to express our anger."

"I am sure that German farmers would be equally appalled if they have been so poorly treated and their export markets threatened," concluded Mr Lester.

ENDS

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