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Freezing works - Source: ONE News -
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Farmers this week face a decision over the future funding of Meat & Wool New Zealand.
Under the Commodities Levies Act, every five years Meat & Wool New Zealand effectively has to renew its mandate to exist.
The organisation invests farmers' levies in areas such as market development to get better returns for farmers than they could as individuals.
Meat and Wool chairman Mike Peterson has already suggested a levies rise, but Tim Fulton from New Zealand Farmers Weekly says most farmers do not want the organisation to increase its budget.
"Farmers are saying 'we like what you're doing but this isn't the time to come and ask for money from us'," says Fulton.
Meat & Wool New Zealand has around $90 million in reserves, of which $60 million is contingency funding in case of an event such as a foot and mouth outbreak.
Earlier this month the organisation said it was using text messaging to try and encourage wider feedback from farmers on how and where it should direct future levy investment as not all farmers are able to make farmer meetings currently underway.
The consultation period closes on July 3.
Meanwhile, challenges facing the meat industry were last week identified in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's report, Meat: The Future.
The report said poor performance by people in the meat industry may be to blame for the low profitability of sheep and beef farming, also compounded by drought, fluctuating commodity prices and a high exchange rate.
The reported did not suggest specific solutions for the industry
- a move which Peterson welcomed, saying farmers and the industry
were best placed to make decisions about its future.
