MARKETING OF HONEY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 33, 18 November 1943, Page 5

MARKETING OF HONEY

PRESENT SYSTEM FAVOURED (P.A.) HAMILTON, November 17. By an overwhelming majority, a meeting of the South Auckland branch of the National Beekeepers’ Association in Hamilton carried a resolution in favour of the retention of the existing honey marketing regulations for the coming season. They had come to the parting of the ways, said Mr A. H. Honeyfield (manager of the Auckland branch of the Internal Marketing Division) when he asked members to give him an expression of opinion whether the regulations under which the department took 70 per cent, of producers’ honey and allowed them to dispose of the balance, should be continued. The regulations, he said, would lapse on November 30. The position of the Honey Marketing Division was so sound that it would withstand any economic gale that might blow. The department had secured a premium over all other honeys from the British Government, and had increased the pay-out to producers to 7id a pound. It had built up reserves valued at £32,015. All its assets were liquid. If the regulations were not continued, and the supply to the department made voluntary, it was doubtful if sufficient money would come forward to warrant keeping the Auckland factory open. The overhead expences would go on, and would be charged to the reserve account now standing to the credit of the industry. A return to the voluntary system would mean the beginning of the end, said Mr Honeyfield. If amendments were introduced they would take months to incorporate into the regulations, and this would be too late for the coming season.