HOP CROP AGAIN LIGHT

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25138, 20 March 1947, Page 8

HOP CROP AGAIN LIGHT

GROWERS ASKING FOR HIGHER PRICE “ The Press" Special Service NELSON, March 19. Already this season nearly 1500 male and female workers have been brought into the Nelson district to help harvest hops, tobacco, apples and pears. Earlier an additional 220 worked among raspberries. All these workers were on the books of the National Employment Service which, by selecting the best labour available from all parts of New Zealand, has built up a good force for primary producers. Other workers have made their own arrangements. Hop picking is now nearly over. The crop is again very light, but not so bad as that of last year, when hops were impprted from Czechoslovakia to make up the New Zealand deficit at about three times the price paid to Nelson growers. They are asking for a fairly long term agreement, at a higher price. Otherwise, they say, the industry is in danger of disappearing because of overhead costs disproportionate to the fixed prices. Hop rot, for which no antidote has been found so far, is also causing losses, as can be seen from the gaps in gardens where plants failed to sprout.