TASMAN TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 145, 21 June 1934, Page 7

TASMAN TRADE.

RESUMPTION URGED.

Experts Recommend Lifting Of Embargoes.

FRUIT AND POTATOES

(United P.A.—Elcctric Telegraph-Copj-riglit)

CANBERRA, June 20.

A resumption of trade in fresh fruit and vegetables between Australia and New Zealand has been recommended by the conference of agricultural and quarantine experts.

The conference decided that imports of apples from New Zealand should be subject to certification by the Dominion authorities that the fruit is from uninfected orchards and without practical risk. The knowledge now available about powdery scab is sufficient in the opinion of the experts to justify the Commonwealth in lifting the prohibition against the. importation of New Zealand potatoes. The conference accordingly recommends that course. Also it has been agreed that, subject to certification by the .departments of Agriculture in the various States, the importation of citrus fruits by New Zealand be resumed without risk of the introduction of fruit fly. These decisions, said' the Federal Minister of Health, Mr. C. W. Marr, are based on scientific evidence only. They will be submitted to the Governments of New Zealand and Australia for approval before any action is taken. Net prices which would be realised in Australia would not be sufficient to cause any great movement of Dominion potatoes to the Commonwealth, said Mr. H. Turner this morning, commenting on the above cable. 110 explained that prices offered by Australian merchants would not be high enough, after freight and other charges had been offset, to make shipment from New Zealand worth while. Should any of this vegetable be shipped, however, it would not intensify the temporary shortage of potatoes in Auckland. The only reason that potatoes were at present in limited supply here was due to the recent shipping hold-up, in which shipments from the South had been delayed. The position would be normal by next week, he thought. The trade in Auckland was watching with interest the fruit development, added Mr. Turner.