PRICE OF HONEY

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23915, 6 April 1943, Page 2

PRICE OF HONEY

PRODUCERS’ POSITION / EXPLAINED MR W. B, BRAY’S REPLY TO MINISTER “Producers are not wanting a higher price from the public, but they are objecting to the Internal Marketing Department adding to selling costs by coming in between the producer and consumer,” said Mr W. B. Bray (president of the Canterbury branch of the National Beekeepers’ - Association) yesterday, in a reply to the Minister of Marketing (the Hon. J. G. Barclay). “The own costs are reckoned at 12i per cent., but there are other costs in labour, tins, and cases which many producers have saved by filling merchants’ retail packages straight from the tank. The department’s policy of putting every producer on the scratch mark by compelling him to case the honey and send it elsewhere to be packed, is economic waste to-day when labour and materials are urgently needed elsewhere. Centralisation is not the way to facilitate distribution of an article already well distributed at the source of production.”

The Minister’s phrase of “community as a whole” was meaningless, but consumers of honey had always been able to get honey so far as crops would allow, said Mr Bray. They would not object to the Armed Forces and health services getting their supplies first. At the beekeepers’ annual conference last year, the representative of the department, when reminded that the Army had ben able to buy cheaper from a producer than from his department, said it was most unsatisfactory to have one Government department buying against another. He offered to take the whole of that producer’s pack at the price named, but the producer said he would sell only to the Army. The Army’s buyer had since refused to deal direct with that producer. “The Minister’s reference to a black market is obscure, but it could mean the price paid to suppliers last year by the Internal Marketing Department when the seals tax fund v/as raided to pay out a higher price, although honey was stabilised at the 1940 level. The 8.97 d return to producer packers includes packing costs estimated by the department at 3id. The 6.73 d for bulk is based on a 96 grade and does not allow for tins, cases and freight. The department’s own prices are based on a 92 grade. “By saying that beekeepers have had special preferences regarding supplies of sugar, petrol, tyres, and manpower, Mr Barclay is overstating his case. The industry has had no more than its just share. The sudden cut in petrol m the middle of the season (December, 1941) contributed to the failure of the crop that year. If he thinks our industry needs disciplining by having its supplies cut off, he is welcome to try that method. The consumers who want honey instead of the jam they could not make because the sugar control has been bungled and the farmers and orchardists who must have bees for fertilisation, will find a way to remind him that minister means ‘to serve.’ ” BEEKEEPERS’ ATTITUDE SUPPORTED DISCUSSION BY WAIMATE FARMERS Support for the attitude of the Canterbury Beekeepers' Association in its efforts to obtain justice for honey producers was affirmed in a motion which received unanimous support at a meeting of the Waimate branch of the Farmers’ Union. “The position discloses a grave injustice.” said Mr F. J. Henshaw, after Mr G. Barclay, a member of the Beekeepers’ Association, had made an appeal for support. Mr Barclay said he took exception to a recent statement by the Minister of Marketing (the Hon. J. G. Barclay), and said that a meeting of beekeepers at Timaru last year had expressed the wish to co-operate 100 per cent, with the Government in finding honey for the armed forces, the hospitals, and for parcels for prisoners of war, and had guaranteed to find Canterbury’s- quota of the quantity required. The honey would have been supplied. °n a price., basis which the Macketihg Department,:could.,not, have bettered. The honey producers now objected to the commandeer taking 70 per cent, of their output at a lower price than previously received. The Price Tribunal had fixed a price for sale to the grocer in small packs which returned approximately 9d per lb net to the grower, whose handling costs were considerably lower than those of the Marketing Department. He added that the North Island produced the greater quantity and had the greater voting power. The North Island wanted the high-grade Canterbury honey to mix with its darker and inferior product. Mr J. Barclay said the Government had stabilised wages and costs but had not stabilised prices of farm produce. “The chief bottleneck to wheatgrowing is competent labour to drive tractors or teams,” said Mr M. D. Studholme. when the meeting considered subjects for discussion with the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. J. G. Barclay) during his visit on April 16. “Most farmers are fully occupied at present: extra sowing of wheat means extra labour of the skilled variety. The only way to ensure increased production is by release of competent labour.” Mr J. Barclay said most of the men in camps who were willing to come out and help were out already. “If we want production we can’t afford to lose one man of those we have to-day,” he concluded. “Once in the army they may become essential, or refuse to volunteer.” Mr W. J. Fletcher, president of the branch and chairman of the Primary Production Committee, was appointed to outline the labour position to the Minister. Mr J. C. Hay will deal with wheatgrowing, Mr G. Barclay will speak for woolgrowers, and Mr M. D. Studholme for pig producers. Mr F. J. Henshaw was deputed to deal with the small seeds question, and the need for.a seed testing station in South Canterbury.