“Guaranteed Potato Price Benefits All Growers”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29269, 29 July 1960, Page 14

“Guaranteed Potato Price Benefits All Growers”

"Under the present scheme we’ve got we levy the lot and dump the best, whereas we should be dumping the worst,” the chairman of the Potato Board (Mr D. B. Annand) said at a meeting of the Malvern Potato Growers’ Committee at Darfleld. With the guaranteed price paid on first-grade potatoes, in times of surplus the undergrade stocks were forced on to the market and spoilt the selling of the firstgrade lines. It seemed only right that if it was possible the undergrade potatoes should be kept off the market, but the solution to the problem was not easy and any scheme which had been put up to the board so far had been “Wide open and full of holes,” he said. His personal opinion was sympathetic to the proposal to pay for undergrade potatoes, but any scheme to succeed would have to be concrete and watertight. The board wanted growers to put forward their ideas. “My opinion is that the guaranteed price benefits every potato grower in every part of New Zealand who grows commercially,” he said. "The potato season begins in November when the new potatoes come on the market and ends the following November when the tail end of the Canterbury surplus is taken off the market. “I think it would be a good thing If all potatoes were levied because the seed grower also benefits under the scheme. Seed prices tend to follow the trend in table potato values,” Mr Annand said. “Reviewing the market in the last few weeks, Mr Annand said that the high prices had resulted from hoarding on the part of individuals and retailers, farmers holding back supplies and a general rumour of shortage. All available shipping had been taken up this year and the flow to the North Island this year had been fully up to normal levels. In Hawke’s Bay, growers had held back from selling and South Island potatoes had been shipped to Napier, and Canterbury potatoes had been railed to Invercargill, where nearby growers had held back stocks. Auckland Market Glut “The turn of events show that if we had allowed imports we would have been in a real mess. The Auckland market at present is completely gutted,” he said. The Pukekohe new crop, which was expected to start coming on the market in September, totalled

some 4000 acres—a record for the area—and if imports kept the selling of these back a month it could act to the detriment of Canterbury growers next year with a later start to the shipping season. In answer to a question from Mr Trevor Mundy, Mr Annand said that applications for imports by North Island merchants had been received, considered and declined by the board a month before the Minister’s statement. The board’s belief was that supplies were adequate. “It really shows the value of the growers’ survey,” Mr Mundy said. “Exactly, we couldn’t have acted with the confidence we did without the figures from the survey this year, which were compared with the figures obtained in the previous two surveys,” Mr ■ Annand said. Mr Annand said that the survey showed the supply to be exactly right. On an all-in basis, it was possible that if the ratio of seed to tables was higher than normal some of the smaller size would have to be eaten. The board’s executive officer, Mr M. P. H. Rousham, said that he had been in Auckland on Wednesday morning and through Otahuhu and Panmure potatoes were retailing at 19s 6d to 25s a 601 b sugar bag. He said that 60,000 sacks of potatoes had arrived in Auckland in the last three weeks. Mr Mundy said that he had been told this week by a Wellington man that a shopkeeper there had brought back three tons of potatoes for reselling as he had more than sufficient to carry him through.