TOMATO BRANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 138, 13 June 1931, Page 12

TOMATO BRANDS.

PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION.

SOUGHT BY GROWERS.

INSTANCES OF FRAUD.

Auckland tomato growers have been promised legislation which will protect their interests in the market next season. Mr. S. W. House, president of the Auckland Tomato and Stone Fruit Growers' Association, said to-day that the association had an assurance that the position would be considered during the approaching'session of Parliament. "If registration is made compulsory, all growers will have to sell their tomatoes under their own brands," said Mr. House. "There have been innumerable complaints in the past about the action of growers wi»» have bought second-hand boxes and cold tomatoes in them without obliterating the original brands. This is a serious matter for genuine growers, because their brands come to be recognised in the markets as a guarantee of quality. If the fruit of unscrupulous growers is sold under these brands there arises a suspicion of the brands. It is a most unfair'form of piracy, and it should be declared illegal."

Mr. Harvey Turner, speaking from the viewpoint of the auctioneers, said there had been some glaring instances in which tomatoes of, poor quality were wrongly sold under the brand of growers who kept their standard high. Retailers' were deceived in such cases, and the auctioneers approved the action of the Tomato Growers' Association in seeking protection. Offenders were becoming less numerous, and the bulk of the tomato crop was now properly marketed, but this gave the unscrupulous or careless man a greater opportunity, because retailers were more confident about buying according to brand. A prominent retailer, Mr. C. F. Stevens, said he and others had experiences of buying tomatoes .that were not according to brand. It would be of assistance to them if they could rely absolutely upon the brands.