MARKETING OF POTATOES

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23881, 25 February 1943, Page 4

MARKETING OF POTATOES

GAZETTING OF PRICES SOUGHT

Two outstanding causes were responsible for the present concern of potato growers about marketing conditions, said Mr D. Goode, representing market gardeners, at a meeting yesterday of the North Canterbury Provincial Executive of,the New Zealand Farmers’ Union.

The first was the importation of American potatoes at the end of last season, some of which were still being used in Home Guard camps, and the second was the appeal of the Government and the Department of Agriculture to all private householders to grow supplies of potatoes in their own gardens. Up to the present, said Mr Goode, South Island growers were ignorant of the position as to prices and marketing. Growers had been in an “awful position’’ as far as returns were concerned since the commencement of the new potato season, and crops had been sold at “any old price,” he said.

In the South Island there was no guaranteed price, except in Nelson for one month. In the North Island there were guaranteed prices, the latest being the February price of £l4 a ton. South Island growers considered this an unfair position. They were concerned about the coming market. Potatoes grown for the January and February market had been disposed of in some cases as low as £4 10s a ton. Growers had faced the position last year and had accepted reduced prices, said Mr Goode. This year they thought the Government in the stabilisation of prices should face the position in the same way and should take the responsibility should there be a surplus. It would be too late for most growers if the surplus prices did not take effect until July, and it was hoped to have surplus prices put forward to operate with the fixed prices in March to relieve growers who had been holding potatoes in the ground. It was decided to ask the DirectorGeneral of Agriculture that potato prices for the coming season be gazetted immediately.