RADICAL STEP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 95, 24 April 1939, Page 10

RADICAL STEP.

IMPORTS OF FOOD.

DEPARTMENTAL CONTROL. FRUIT AND VEGETABLES. Control of the import of fresh fruit and vegetables by the Internal Marketing Division under the new scheme will widen, sphere of activities only slightly, according to one large Auckland merchant. However, the inclusion of dried fruits, raisins, currants, prunes, fruit juices, canned peas, jams and jellies is a new and radical departure, bringing the division into the grocery field.

"In one way this is a godsend to importers of these lines of groceries," said another prominent representative of the trade. "Licenses applied for from the Customs Department «ince last December have been withheld, curtailed or allowed in full, obviously without understanding of the needs of local trade and industry. Factories have been held up through the refusal of licenses to import essential raw materials in some cases, while licenses have been allowed to import some commodities which could have been supplied locally.

"With the Internal Marketing Division in control, merchants can at least expect that the policy followed in issuing licensee will meet local requirements to some extent. The division is in close touch with local industry, and is actually in the wholesale distribution business, handling certain lines on its own premises." "Change for the Better." A principal of an Auckland preserving firm said that from hie company's viewpoint the change appeared to be for the better. The transfer of the produce to the Internal Marketing Division was not a question of further restrictions, as all the goods were already controlled under the import regulations. .

It meant, however, that the whole fruit, vegetable and produce held would be under one control, he continued, 6o that supplies could be co-ordinated and regulated according to the quantities available locally. It would be more satisfactory in seeking licenses to import for preserving purposes to deal with men who were constantly in touch with the supply situation. Some importers of the grocery lines now under the control of the Internal Marketing Division were apprehensive about the possible futuce extension of this control. Generally they feared that the transfer of the power to issue licenses was only a first step, and that m the future the division would take over the importation and distribution of these lines. This has been done in the case of imported fresh fruite, euch as oranges and bananas. With regard to fresh fruits, the division already handled oranges, mandarine, grapefruit, lemone and bananas coming mto the country, importing 75 to 80 per cent of the freeh fruit and vegetables coining into the country Wholesale merchants sell these imports on behalf of the. Government on a commwsion basis. Now the quantity of imported fresh fruits under the division nas been increased to 100 per cent