Yet Flemings operations manager concedes that the Southern area produces some of the best quality oats in the country and there is no question about the mills profitability. The transfer of the plant to Australia doesn t just spell the end of jobs at the mill and income for farmers and all the consequences that has on the local district. It also increases the imports of another basic food stuff from overseas, upping our merchandise trade deficit even more and making it harder for our exports to get it back into the black. I thought we were world leaders in growing vegetables and raising cattle and now this. It s not the farmers fault .
Foreign control is the problem.
There are two challenges facing us as a nation. The first is to buy New Zealand made and the second is to buy back New Zealand. The first is something we can start doing right now. I was intrigued by local National MP Bill English s reaction to the closure of the Fleming Mill at Gore. He said in the Otago Daily Times I don t like the idea of having to eat Australian porridge .