24—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 29, 1973
Wentink Addresses SPICE Meeting
“It may already be too late to
fight overproduction in the egg
industry,” declared Hendrik
Wentink, assistant to the
president of the Pennfield Cor
poration, and president of the
Northeastern Poultry Producers
Council (NEPPCO), in ad
dressing the annual meeting of
the New York State Poultry
Industry Coordinated Effort
(SPICE) at Alexandria Bay, NY,
on September 14.
“In cash accounting alone,” he
Penna. Hens
Producing Less
Laying hens in Pennsylvania
produced 289 million eggs during
August according to the Crop
Reporting Service. This was
down one percent from
production last month and last
year
The average number of layers
on hand during August was 15.0
million, a two percent increase
over the July number and three
percent more than the number on
hand last August.
The average daily rate of lay
during August was 62.4 eggs per
100 layers, compared with 63.9
last month and 64.3 a year ago.
United States egg production
during August was 5,402 million
eggs, six percent less than
August 1972 production. Layers
on hand averaged 283.3 million,
five percent below a year earlier.
The average rate of lay during
the month was down one percent
from a year earlier.
declared, “there are enough tax
savings built in for a 10 percent
increase in production.” He
urged his audience to keep
working on market demand.
Pointing to Standard Brands’
budget of $4 million to introduce
Egg Beater and to a recent study
by the dairy industry which
indicated that it takes an ex
penditure of 15 cents per con
sumer to effectively increase
sales, Wentink chided the poultry
industry for its “measly \ x k cents
per consumer spent in only a few
limited marketing areas”. Too
many in the poultry industry, he
said, still have the ‘Let George do
it’ philosophy and they had better
wake up.
Turning to legislative and
governmental issues, Wentink
explained NEPPCO’s support for
the proposed mandatory
allocation program for fuel,
including butane and propane.
“I respectfully submit to you,”
he said, “that it is not in the in
terest of the consumers of the
United States to forever expect
our grain exports to pick up a
substantial part of the bill for
hauling in energy from Middle
Eastern countries who know they
have a hammer lock on us, are
putting on the squeeze, and, if we
let them, will milk us dry.”
Wentink voiced the opinion that
any delay in the United States
developing as many alternate
energy sources as possible, in
cluding the Alaska fields, would
be contrary to our national in
terests, contrary to the interests
of the consumers in general, and
contrary to the interests of the
poultry industry and other food
processing groups.
While the poultry industry is
not specifically mentioned in the
Trade Reform Bill (H.R. 6767)
currently before Congress, it has
tremendous implications for all
of us, Wentink said. Our
negotiators need a free hand to
enter new negotiations, to be
more flexible on policy, to
bargain for increased relief from
disruptive imports - especially
when sold at prices lower than in
the country of origin, to extend
more-favored-nation treatment
to imports from additional
countries to encourage two-way
trade, and to grant some tariff
preference to developing coun
tries so they can buy those things
from us that will help make them
self-sustaining.
Our industry, he stressed, has
not in recent years enjoyed its
fair share nor received fair
treatment from our so-called
foreign trading partners. They
are glad to buy our grains and
proteins, but when we deal in
poultry, many doors are closed.
Some even use our grain to feed
their poultry which they then ship
- at subsidized prices - into
markets in which we compete.
For these and many other
reasons, Wentink said,
poultrymen should urge their
Congressmen to support H.R.
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Touching briefly on the Con
sumer Protection Act, H.R. 21
and S. 707, the pending FDA
approval of dried poultry waste
as a commercial feed ingredient,
and other matters, Wentink
concluded by congratulating the
SPICE organization for its
significant increase in mem
bership this year. NEPPCO, he
said, has also just concluded a
successful membership cam
paign that netted over 100 new
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“We greatly appreciate
SPICB’s interest in working with
NEPPCO,” he said, "and while
our mutual effort in working out a
formal agreement earlier this
year did not seem entirely
feasible, both our organizations
gained from the experience as
evidenced by the much closer ties
we enjoy today. Speaking for
NEPPCO, it is my hope that this
relationship will grow even
stronger in the future.”
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