Produce Trader Denies Potato Export Complaint

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30066, 26 February 1963, Page 18

Produce Trader Denies Potato Export Complaint

“The remarks of Mr W. S. Lowe, formerly assistant secretary of the Australian Department of Trade, just about cap all previous efforts by the arrant nonsense which he wishes New Zealanders to swallow,” said the managing director of Radley Bros., Ltd (Mr H. E. Radley). Mr Radley was replying to a message reporting Mr Lowe as saying that bad handling methods and deterioration cf products were the reasor New Zealand could not sell potatoes on the Australian market.

“Merchants engaged ;n trans-Tasman trade nave become used to the soothing syrup dished out by Australian trade officials when irate - New .Zealand traders protest against the .various devices which are invoked by the Australian authorities to keep New Zealand products from the Australian markets, no matter how scarce and dear the ‘commodity may be on the other side of the Tasman,” said Mr Radley. “Mr Lowe says that' the

trouble which New Zealand exporters of potatoes struck in Australia in 1961 was of their own making. He said that it was wrong to blame Australian quarantine regulations and he’ says that they were relaxed to allow New Zealand potatoes entry. Will he please say just what relaxation was made?” asked Mr Radley. New Bags

“I would remind Mr Lowe that the potatoes sent from New Zealand were speral'? selected and packed ’n new bags, so I do not know nowmuch better the New Zealand exporter could, have presented his product. “New Zealand in the last six to eight years has' imported between 30.000 and 50,000 tons of Australian potatoes; we have insisted upon them being packed in new bags just as the Australians did. We did not, however, insist pn their being washed, and we accepted them with the Tasmanian soil adhering to the potato—which is unavoidable unless washing occurs.

“Had we insisted on washing, I suggest that the Australian potatoes would have arrived in New Zealand in just as unattractive a state as the New Zealand potatoes which the Australian authorities . two years ago insisted on being' wasned in New Zealand, and then h.’a re-treated in Australia

“The ludicrous part of it was that, after being retreated in Australia, the potatoes were put back in the same bags, so there was a possibility of the odd loose potato, not. re-treatel in Sydney, being left in the bag, and of soil adhering to the bag. Tasmanian po'atoes arrived here similar to the norm&l, good first grade we are used to here, and compared in no way to the outstanding quality and pack of potatoes from California,” said Mr Radley. Political Pressure.

“Any New Zealander who knows anything about transTasman trade, knows very well that political pressure in Australia is so strong that any means will be adopted to

keep New Zealand from exporting to the Commonwealth. It is time that people like Mr Lowe stopped trying to pull the wool.over New Zealanders' eyes by making statements which are untrue.

“Mr Marshall will shortly be having . trade talks with his opposite number at Canberra. and it is to be hoped that he will adopt a tough line,” Mr Radley said. “I, for one. would like to see a lot of the trade which goes to Australia go to countries such as England, the United States, and Japan, where New Zealand has favourable trade balances. This is the only kind of talk the Australians understand, and already we have seen efforts by Australian authorities to have the freight raised between Japan and New Zear land so as to divert back to Australia some of the purchases of steel which have been going to Japan.

“I realise that the Grain and Seed Merchants Federation and the Potato Board will have something to say

in reply to this absurd statement, but with the knowledge I have of some 30 years' Australian discrimination, I cannot resist registering my protest immediately.” said Mr Radley.