18 March 1983 Clean environment selling point for N.Z. products

Dr Bommert said West Germany was very industrialised and could not provide many natural things because of pollution.

“West German forests are dying because of air pollution, and about 10% of trees — mainly conifers — will die,” he said.

“Nitrogen from intensive farming is affecting groundwater, and soils are being poisoned by heavy metals, such as cadmium, lead and mercury.”

The levels of these heavy metals seemed likely to rise and farmers would find certain crops, such as potatoes, could not be grown in some areas.

Consumers in West Germany were very sensitive about chemicals in foods as these were seen as a health risk.

“A year ago artificial hormones were found in some veal, and this was said to be dangerous for babies and also likely to cause cancer in adults,” he said.

“An immediate reaction was that sales of baby foods containing veal dropped to 10%, and consumption of veal by adults dropped by half.”

“This shows that if there is any doubt about the health quality of food there is an immediate reaction.”

Dr Bommert said that mainly middle-class people were taking to natural foods, and these were less affected by economic ups-and-downs.

Natural foods were sometimes 100% dearer than other foods, but many Germans were prepared to pay more for natural foods, he said.

New Zealand’s relatively clean environment could be a selling point for this country’s agricultural and horticultural products on the West German market.

This is the view of Dr Wilfried Bommert, an agricultural broadcaster with the West German Broadcasting Service in Bonn. Dr Bommert is at present visiting Lincoln College as part of a Rotary International group study exchange tour of New Zealand.

He said a country such as New Zealand which had little or no pollution should promote this fact in advertising and marketing in West Germany.

“The Scandinavian countries are already taking up this attitude in selling their produce to German consumers,” Dr Bommert said.

Most West Germans were very conscious of the high levels of water and air pollution in their country.

Natural food shops had spread all over the country and home gardeners had turned to biological methods to grow their own produce. About 1000 farms out of the 400,000 in West Germany had changed to biological methods of farming.

“A lot more farms would also change, but hesitate to do so for fear of possible losses in the transition,” Dr Bommert said.

“There is a big demand for produce from farms which use few or no chemicals, and this shows the attitude of the consumer to natural and biologically-produced farm food.”

Marlborough Express 18 March 1983