MOBILE SHOPS SUGGESTED

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26559, 23 October 1951, Page 8

MOBILE SHOPS SUGGESTED

SALE OF VEGETABLES AND FRUIT

VIEWS OF GROWERS* JOURNAL

“Mobile shops going into residential areas and selling fruit and vegetables at a reasonable price will act as a curb to the desire of retailers to make an excessive profit,” says the “Tomato and Stone Fruit Journal,” official organ of the Christchurch Tomato and Bione Fruit Growers’ Association, in a leading article on the retail prices of fruit and vegetables. In a leading article last month, the journal claimed that very often the high price of vegetables could not be attriouted to the producer but to the retailer.

Referring to a recent statement in the publication. “Fruit and Produce," that high prices of vegetables were caused by a severe winter, lack of organic fertilisers, and decreased area under production, the journal says that these circumstances might apply in the North Island, but their effect in Canterbury had not been quite the same. There had not been a severe shortage of inorganic fertiliser in Canterbury and the area registered as market gardens increased from 1603 acres in 1949 to, 1682 in 1950. The severity of the winter did affect the supply of some vegetables, and caused market prices to rise.

“We halve observed that when market prices are high the percentage of profit made by the retailer has decreased,” says the journal. “This is because they know that the consumer is prepared to spend only a certain amount on his fruit and vegetables each week, and if the price is too high their turnover decreases. “Last fruit season we noticed that stone fruit from Canterbury and Central Otago sold at more reasonable retail prices in Wellington than in Christchurch. Prices received by growers were very much on a par when the additional freight was taken into account, but the retail prices were lower. This supports our contention that retailers often make excessive charges. This is particularly noticeable when produce is in over-supply and prices are low. “Oiesum, we know that the retailer says ‘it is difficult to increase the price once it has been low,* but why do they offer such absurdly low prices at auction when there are good supplies and they know full well that they will sell at a high price? We think that the desire to make ‘easy money’ at the expense of the grower and the consumer is the answer. "We contend that with a product that can be produced in the home garden the retail price must be low enough to persuade many home gardeners that it is cheaper to buy than to grow their own, and wholesale prices must be sufficiently high to keep the producer in production. Whenever these two facts get out of balance, as they very often are to-day, we get dissatisfied growers and a dissatisfied consuming public. “Wholesalers’ commission rates being on market returns, their income depends on the wholesale price. Handling charges and transport costs are the same on a crate of cauliflowers sold at 10s as on the same crate sold at £2 10s. Thus it behoves auctioneers to see that they obtain the highest market price if their firm is to obtain an increase in commission."