Farmers gain levy reduction

Pressure from farmers has prompted M&WNZto reduce its proposed levy increase to fund the producer board's activities reports The ODT. M&WNZ chairman Mike Petersen said his board had listened to more than 2000 farmers at 68 consultation meetings around the country and would propose a lower levy to farmers at the end of this month. The board proposed nearly doubling levies to between $5.50 to $6 a head for cattle and 60c-80c a head for sheep, but the clear message from farmers was they wanted a smaller increase, he said in an interview yesterday. Mr Petersen said while returns for sheep in particular were high at present, there was little confidence those levels would continue. The proposed levy level would meet the true cost of the board's activities without outside funding, he said. There was farmer support for the board to continue to lobby for market access, skills education and information gathering by its Economic Service. However, farmers felt meat exporters should meet more of the cost of market development. "That's a challenge we've got. We want to address farmer concerns and we are working on a couple of things to address that." Southland farmer Murray Turner has put forward an alternative proposal in which the board's focus would be one of solely funding and overseeing research and development projects which met strict criteria. This would reduce levies to a maximum of 15c for sheep, $1 for beef and 2c for wool but would require farmers to reject the current referendum, he said.  Mr Petersen said such a proposal would raise just $6.2 million for research and development, much less than the $9 million it currently spent and the target investment of between $10 million and $12 million.