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Is the Silver Fern Farms’ Chinese Deal Off

Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
27 JUNE 2016

Is the Silver Fern Farms’ Chinese Deal Off?

In a move that will embarrass the government, Australian media are reporting that Shanghai Maling has abandoned efforts to buy our largest meat exporter, Silver Fern Farms.

“The Overseas Investment Office, before it does anything else, needs to first make sure it is not wasting its time on a deal that may now be off,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“If the Australian Business Review is right and Shanghai Maling’s parent Bright Food has abandoned Silver Fern Farms, then it will embarrass the Prime Minister and National.

“This shonky deal is bad for the co-op’s farmers, its workers and for New Zealand and would be a lucky escape. It was a deal National welcomed without regard for the red meat farmers and workers in the provinces.

“It should fall over, and a number of Silver Fern’s board and senior management have to go. They’ve obfuscated the co-op’s true financial position and led their staff and shareholders on a massively wasteful and damaging wild-goose chase.

“And what’s there to show for the millions wasted? Just another broken deal to add to the PGW Wrightson debacle from several years ago. What Silver Fern Farms needs are talented people committed to the meat industry who’ll drive added value and returns for farmers and workers.

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“New Zealand First, from the outset, never believed that Silver Fern Farms was on the verge of liquidation, or that our red meat industry was broken, or that another country needed to run it.

“Chilled meat exports to Asia are a game-changer so Silver Fern Farms may now have a chance to row its own boat. Under Chinese control the future would have been bleak; being a conglomerate’s business unit providing unprocessed meat at the cheapest price.

“National wants meat to follow the forestry industry’s foreign-owned non-value add approach but we don’t. Our primary produce is valuable and it’s frankly long since time we recognised that.

“If there’s a lesson from the UK’s Brexit vote here, it is of haughty well-paid staff and smug board members ignoring the ordinary people. It’s time for those farmers to rise along with the Alliance Group and demand a change in direction so that they get a fair slice of the action,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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