POTATO PRICE ORDER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27593, 25 February 1955, Page 10

POTATO PRICE ORDER

RATES LESS THAN LAST YEAR

ASSESSMENT METHOD REVISED

Wra Zealand Press Association) . WELLINGTON, February 24. Prices for main-crop and seed potatoes sold for delivery from March 2™ ar . d J ire slig &! y less than those nxed last year. The new figures were given in the annual potato price order, which was gazetted tonight. Retail prices for main crop potatoes for delivery in March and April will be about id per lb leas than last year, and will be 3Jd per lb in Wellington. Tne price for deliveries from May to November will be 4d, the same as last year. Certified seed potatoes will sell at 3s. instead of last year’s price of 3s 2d for 71b lots, and at 5s 5d instead of 5s 8d for 141 b lots. Growers’ prices in the main are £1 10s a ton less for main-crop table and fair average quality tubers, and also for seed. For main-crop potatoes sold for delivery from March onward. South Island growers will receive £l7 10s a ton to.b., for most varieties of good table potatoes, and £l6 for f.a.q. potatoes. North Island growers will receive £l9 10s for- good table potatoes and £lB for f.a.q. lots. The secretary of the Potato Board (Mr IT. J. McHugh) said tonight that the new prices were the result of a revision of the method of assessing the prices. The board this year had accepted contracts for an acreage a little greater than last season’s. The excess of supply over demand last year had resulted from an increase of actual above expected yields an acre, said Mr McHugh. This season, the South Island growers had had a long, dry spen, and yields might be several tons an acre lower. In the North Island, the yields might not be much different from last year’s.