Growing farmer support for a mega meat industry group was encouraging because any failure could propel the farming industry into ‘‘unimaginable'' bad times, Clutha-Southland MP Bill English warned yesterday.
Addressing a breakfast public meeting, Mr English said the drought, low lamb prices and the expanding competition in the form of dairying were all hurting farmers, but this would be nothing compared with the problems if the meat companies failed to produce a new working model for the industry.
‘‘I'm really heartened to see 100% support for the idea so far. That degree of support is great, but it would be awful if it [the concept] fell over.
‘‘Together with all the other things happening at the moment, failure could see profound depression among farmers.''
He hoped the new mega company could be up and running next year and National was ‘‘quite supportive'' and would help change legislation if needed to make it a reality.
