POTATO SEASON REVIEWED

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27633, 14 April 1955, Page 6

POTATO SEASON REVIEWED

REPORT TO WAIMATE GROWERS

“MOST DISASTROUS” IN HISTORY (From Our Own Reporter) WAIMATE, April 13. “The potato season just past will be remembered as the most disastrous in the history of potato growing. Many growers suffered heavy financial loss because of a surplus of f.a.q. table potatoes and the inability of the Potato Board to pay the full market price for the potatoes kept on farms. It does not seem right that a surplus of half a ton an acre of f.a.q. table potatoes should cause the chaos in marketing that occurred last season,” said Mr G. B. Richardson in presenting the report to the annual meeting of the Waimate Potato Growers’ Association. Mr Richardson commended the growers of Waimate county for holding out for the price to which they were entitled instead of accepting lower prices offered by agents who were trying to take advantage of the growers’ position. “South Canterbury merchants must also be commended for doing their best to hold actual prices for the growers. They did a good job in keeping out black market operators. “Although growers suffered heavy financial losses they have again answered the call for potato production, and it is to be hoped that the same set of circumstances will not occur again,” Mr Richardson said. “If it does, the potato growers in the area that this association represents will be in a very bad position. At this stage it is very hard to estimate. the yield position throughout the Dominion, but growers’ opinions are that yields in the Waimate district this year will definitely be lower by an estimated two to three tons per acre.” Mr Richardson commented on the marketing and distribution of potatoes when in a year of a 10,000-ton surplus many reports were received about consumers who had been unable to get sufficient potatoes. “Where the fault lies, nobody appears to know,**’ he said.