THE VEGETABLE INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23661, 11 June 1942, Page 4

THE VEGETABLE INDUSTRY

Planned Organisation Advocated EVIDENCE TO COUNCIL COMMITTEE The complete organisation of the vegetable industry, with a system of licensing or registration of growers, and planned production schedules to eliminate, as far as possible, shortages and gluts, was recommended to the vegetable committee of the Christchurch City Council last evening by representatives of the Canterbury Fruit Buyers’ Association, who gave evidence. The committee consists of members of the City Council and representatives of many interested organisations. Mr E. Guthrie, president of the association, said' that the price of vegetables was' governed by supply and demand, and a wide variety of causes affected both factors. The grower at present was meeting serious difficulties through the shortage of manpower and the impossibility in many cases of securing experienced men for the market gardens. Petrol and tyre shortages would undoubtedly have an increasingly adverse effect on th* supply. i Assistance for Growers Urged Assistance to the grower was, in his opinion, one of the chief requirements in securing an adequate supply of vegetables at reasonable prices. The grower was having to face other difficulties such as the shortage of manures and of some kinds of seeds. Leek seed, for instance, came from enemy-occupied territories. The price for such seed was high, little seed would be planted, and consequently the supplies of leeks in future would be small. The attention of the Internal Marketing Department had been drawn to these problems last year, when it was predicted that unless the industry was organised in the meantime there would be a shortage of vegetables this winter. That shortage was already being felt in the North Island. All recognised that the camps must have all the vegetables they required, said Mr Guthrie, but there was no doubt that their competition on the markets raised the price to the civilian consumer. It should be possible for most of the camps to establish their own market gardens. He said that even where the camps ordered direct from a grower the brokers still had ■to be paid their commission. Vegetable growing was a science, he went on. It was easy to produce vegetables in the glut period; difficult to produce them "out of season,” yet the latter was what was needed to prevent the extreme ranges of price. The market gardener should have some protection against the “backyard gardener” who poured his produce into the markets at glut periods to the detriment of the commercial gardener whose responsibility was to supply the market for the other eight months of the year. Market Practices Mr S. L. Rogers, secretary to the association, dealt with some of the difficulties of the marketing system. He said that often the buyers were not allowed to start the bidding. The auctioneer, armed with a list of orders from distant buyers, would in some cases start the bidding at a price none of the buyers present in tf\e auction rooms would accept. The necessity for some buyers to employ commission agents was also a factor in increasing the price. If he placed an order for celery with an auctioneer, but did not attend the market, and celery brought from 6s to 10s the "chances were that he would be charged on the higher price. "No fruiterer is out to rob the public,” said Mr Rogers. “The public, generally, are our friendl The fruiterer was in the hands of the market. The broker,” he said, “is a necessary evil, and we could hardly do without him.