AUCKLAND POTATO CROP

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27011, 10 April 1953, Page 13

AUCKLAND POTATO CROP

GROWERS SEEK OPEN PRICE ‘‘NEED BE NO SHORTAGE NEXT YEAR” (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 9. There need be no shortage of potatoes next year if the Government allowed an open price for the crop, said the secretary of the Franklin Produce Growers’ Association (Mr L. W. Key) today. Franklin growers, he said, were amazed at a statement by the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr J. T. Watts) that he doubted whether any extra incentive such as the removal of price control from potatoes would have persuaded Pukekohe growers to plant more potatoes for the late-season market “The growers have asked Mr Watts whether he is prepared to free potatoes from price control for the autumn crop of 1954,’’ said Mr Key. “All other vegetables are free of control and are plentiful. We find ourselves with a controlled price for our autumn crop without any chance of submitting costs of production, as we do not come under the Potato Board, and /the Price Tribunal has never consulted us. “The Minister says that Pukekohe is the traditional area for growing early potatoes,” Mr Key said, “but it has only been on account of the quantity of potatoes shipped to the North Island from May onwards by southern merchants that Franklin growers found it uneconomic to grow more than their own requirements for seed. There is no other district in New Zealand that can grow two crops of potatoes in the one year. “With an open price for next year there need be no shortage of potatoes, as Franklin growers are prepared to take the risk of getting £5 or £5O a ton according to auction values, with no claim on the Government or Potato Board as other districts have should the market be oversupplied.”