MARKETING OF ONIONS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22337, 26 February 1938, Page 16

MARKETING OF ONIONS

NEW REGULATIONS IN FORCE TODAY PRICE OF £4 A TON FOR AVERAGE GRADE GROWERS AND WHOLESALERS MUST REGISTER (riBSS ASSOCIATION MLEMAM.) WELLINGTON, February 25. The Board of Trade (Onion) Regulations, 1938, which will come into force to-morrow, replace all previous regulations under the Board of Trade Act. For the purpose of the regulations New Zealand is divided into three districts—(l) Roughly the northern half of the North Island; (2) the other part of the North Island; (3) all the South Island.

Onions for sale in New Zealand are to be classified as graded or ungraded, the sacks containing the latter to be marked with the letter "X." District Complaints Committees, set up by the New Zealand Grain, Seeds, and Produce Merchants' Federation, will deal with complaints about graded onions. The minimum price for f.a.q. grade onions is £4 a ton ex port or railway station, whichever is the nearest to the place where/they are grown. No minimum price is fixed for the sale of pickler grade onions. When f.a.q. grade oniofis are sold by public auction, the upset price must return to the grower £4, less auction charges. The New Zealand Onion Marketing Advisory Committee, composed of representatives of the Government, onion growers, and onion wholesalers, is to advise the Minister on minimum price variations (if any) and on matters relating to production and marketing. Onion growers and wholesalers must register annually and furnish monthly returns, except in December and January.