Profit From Garden Peas “Not Very Rewarding”

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32052, 29 July 1969, Page 6

Profit From Garden Peas “Not Very Rewarding”

The profit from garden peas taken over a number of years is not very rewarding, according to Mr R. Ballinger, export and produce manager of the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association, Ltd. “This is borne out by the fact that over the last three years at least five Christchurch merchants have given up the growing of garden peas on their own account,” he said when commenting on remarks made at a meeting of the agriculture section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers last week. Mr A. L. Mulholland, chairman of the section, had stated that an export price of $*2.65 a bushel left a margin of at least $1 over the price that the grower received, so that growers perhaps could press for a better price.

Mr Ballinger mentioned the $2.65 price in an earlier article in “The Press.” He said a rough costing on an average line of peas to cover railage into store, handling, machine dressing and the loss on seconds, offal and dirt was a minimum of 50 per cent of the field-dressed price,

so where the price was $1.60 a bushel to the grower -the minimum cost of machinedressed product was $2.40, and these peas had then to be put free on board and a brokerage paid to the selling broker.

As well, these peas had often to be held for nine to 10 months before they were shipped and paid for.

Merchants also showed a loss on all seed sent out to the grower, and where Agronomy seed cqst up to $7.10 a bushel the loss was even greater. This year, as well as Agronomy seed, the merchants had purchased fresh seed from the United States, England arid the Netherlands, and on one variety alone the loss would be just on $3OOO.

“In order to sell our product overseas we have to renew seed of existing varieties and purchase high-priced seed of new strains, while on the hand stocks of varieties which are no longer in demand have

to be devalued and used for stock food,” Mr Ballinger said, as well as some labour charges, had to be met by the merchant.

Poor preparation of the ground and subsequent bad harvesting could lead to production of a poor sample and losses of up to 30 per cent. To keep down dressing costs clean lines must be delivered to the store. This would become more apparent in the future, particularly with pasture seeds, where costs were a vital matter when it came to competing on overseas markets.

Mr Ballinger said he had been pleased to read that another speaker at the Federated Farmers’ meeting, Mr S. J. Lister, had stated that the growing of peas was an excellent idea. However, growers, particularly those of tnaple peas, should heed Mr Mulholland’s warning, as production of this variety could be overdone. Contracts for garden peas and blue peas were still available as an alternative.