Apples Cost 2d lb, Sold For Is 3d

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30410, 8 April 1964, Page 6

Apples Cost 2d lb, Sold For Is 3d

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, April 6.

Windfall Delicious apples, salvaged byCentral Otago fruitgrowers after last month’s gale, have been selling in Dunedin shops for between 9d and Is 3d a pound.

Those hoping for some cheap apples were disappointed, but not nearly so much as the orchardists, who were. paid just over 2d a pound for the damaged fruit. . In Dunedin fruit shops today most Delicious apples were being sold for about Is a pound. In a few cases the good apples had been taken out, given a polish, and were offered at Is 3d a pound. Some fruiterers said that the apples were not windfalls but “the good ones.” The branch manager of the Apple and. Pear Marketing Board (Mr J. McKain) said that the only Delicious

apples released on the market were the windfalls. The fruit had to pass through a number of steps before it increased in price from a few pence a pound in the orchard to Is a pound in the city. The board bought the fruit at 2.148 d a pound at the railhead from the growers. This came to about 6s 3d a case containing bn an average 32 to. 35 pounds of apples. With the cost of the case, liner and freight ,to Dunedin the price' was up to Ils 2d a case. The merchant's commission for a case was Is 6d, making the cost 12s Bd. The cases were then sold to the retailers at 15s a case. “No Bargain” The president of the Otago Fruit Retailers’ Association (Mr S. T. Jones) said that some of the fruit was “fairly rough.” He thought that 9d a pound would be a fair price. Mr Jones said that if any of the shops were charging prices of Is and Is 3d then they were “not playing the game.” “I would not consider the apples a bargain,” be said. A Roxburgh fruitgrower, commenting on the mark-up, said: "The whole system is rotten.” '