CANTERBURY POTATOES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 115, 18 May 1927, Page 4

CANTERBURY POTATOES.

CROP BELOW NORMAL?

GROWERS ADVISED TO HOLD. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. A letter regarding the price of potatoes, sent by Mr. S. Jones, M.P., to Mr. J. D. Hall, president of the North Canterbury branch of the Farmers' Union, and published yesterday, has excited a good deal of comment in grain and produce circles in Christchurch. In his letter Mr. Jones contended that the farmer to-day should be getting at least £5 a ton on trucks for his potatoes. The present price is only £3 a ton. Mr. Jones based his contention on the assumption that the average yield of potato crops in Canterbury this season is considerably below normal. This is the crux of the question, and it is the point on which the opinions of merchants vary. During the past week or two growers have not been selling their potatoes so freely, and advice from Auckland is to the effect that the market there is being cleared of Canterbury tubers, and that there may be a rise in price soon. There is little doubt that if growers follow the advice of Mr. Jones, and hold their potatoes, the price will go up, but whether it will stay up will depend on the actual quantity of table potatoes there is in the province. As already stated, opinions in the trade on this point differ. Time alone will tell which side is right, but the present indications are that there will not be any surplus.