"WILL SHORTEN"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 108, 8 May 1943, Page 3

"WILL SHORTEN"

PRODUCE SUPPLIES EFFECT OF NEW PRICES Produce auctioneers expect that the effect of the new comprehensive price order, covering fruit and vegetables, will be the same as that experienced following the issue of last year's order—certain lines will shorten off, with consequent keener demand for supplies. They hold that the new prices in some cases are too low and in others too high. In some cases, particularly, the order is said to be too late.

Price as a factor in the auctioning system, it was pointed • out, is dominant only ■ when there are plentiful supplies. When the season tails off and there are only limited quantities of produce coming forward the auction system becomes a farce. There is a clamour for produce, and it becomes mainly a question of rationing on the part of the auctioneer.

Dealing with the new schedule of prices, a merchant pointed out, as one instance where the new price level- was too low, that at midseason kumaras were selling at the maximum of 36/ a cwt. Now, when supplies were falling off they were to be reduced to the low figure of 27/. The order was too late, it was stated. Parsnips, at 21/, were low enough in price, but now they were reduced to 20/, carrots, at 15/, were "only fair," pumpkins, 18/, were low in price. On the other hand, the price for swedes, 12/ a cwt, was good, and the same price for white turnips, having regard to the comparative ease and cost of growing, was "too good."

"When the maximum price is not high enough," it was stated, "the tendency is to shorten the supply. It has happened before and it will happen again."