Apple Sales SCHEME TO COMBAT BLACK MARKET

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31782, 12 September 1968, Page 26

Apple Sales SCHEME TO COMBAT BLACK MARKET

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 11. A scheme to combat black marketing in apples, involving higher payment to growers who meet the Apple and Pear Board requirements than to those who do not, is being considered by the board, said its chairman (Mr S. D. Sinclair) today.

The board is to meet next week to agree on the final details, and the scheme will be presented to the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Taiboys). .

The scheme, which involves a “contract of supply” between individual growers and the board made at the beginning of each season, is to be the first use of the board's additional legal powers granted by legislation late last year. Although the details of the scheme have not yet been finalised, all parties in the fruit world, including growers and the board, have agreed on general principles. This morning Mr Sinclair said this followed a scheme approved at the recent conference of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation. Under the “contract of supply” signed by the board and individual growers at the beginning of each season, growers would contract not to advertise details of varieties and prices, said Mr Sinclair. Two Cases Under present schemes, fruitgrowers have the right to sell two cases of fruit to each client at one time. It is

not proposed that this will be changed. The rest must go to the board. Mr Sinclair said it was suggested under the proposed scheme that the board would pay more for supplies to growers who met the board’s requirements than to those who did not. Under the 1948 Act it had never been intended that growers should sell direct to the consumer. But as soon as the board came into being the problem of illegal selling had been faced, he said. The board had always been faced with the problem of a certain number of growers who sold their stocks privately, then sold to the board only what they could not quit. “Growers who supply to the board should be entitled to a greater share of the cake,” Mr Sinclair said. Incentive Scheme

Ip 1961 a “continuous incentive scheme” had been put into operation; and although it appeared to have worked the board did not have adequate legal authority to continue it

A meeting of retailers, growers and the board, - in December, 1965, convened by the Minister of Agriculture, had called for greater legal

powers and had strongly recommended reintroduction of the incentive scheme, he said. The board, since getting the additional legal powers in 1967, had been trying to devise ways in which growers who supplied the board would receive more than those who sold illegally, said Mr Sinclair.

He could not say what the actual details of the final scheme might be.