Strawberry plot

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32459, 20 November 1970, Page 12

Strawberry plot

Many Queensland strawberry growers, according to a recent report from Brisbane, are “ facing their “worst financial crisis for more than a decade”. Cheap imported strawberries have “glutted” the Australian market and driven prices down; the imports are reported to have come mainly from New Zealand and Mexico. Queensland growers have been pressing the Customs Department for protection; but the Australian Government has been loath to impose a tariff on the New Zealand imports because of the Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. An Auckland spokesman for Turners and Growers, Ltd, the firm which handles most of New Zealand's exports of strawberries, dismissed as “ propaganda ” the suggestion that cheap imported strawberries had caused a glut in Australia; but he did not deny that this trade was profitable for New Zealand.

New Zealand strawberries fetched 35c to 40c a punnet in the produce markets in Sydney on November 2, according to the “ Sydney Morning “ Herald ”. The same day they were selling at 30c to 35c a punnet retail in Auckland. Allowing for the difference between wholesale and retail prices, there would appear to be an ample margin between Sydney and Auckland prices to cover the cost of air freight—about 4c a punnet So long as this margin is maintained, Auckland growers and merchants will have an incentive to sell strawberries in Australia. If Queensland growers cannot produce strawberries as economically as New Zealand growers they may be forced out of business. If the Queensland growers are successful in their attempts to restrict this competition New Zealand growers will suffer, so will Australian housewives. The history of customs unions shows that consumers have benefited most from unions between competing, not complementary, economies. Politically, it is easier to negotiate a customs union between complementary economies, which ensures that the producers excluded from the market are foreigners; economically, such a union is likely to result in higher prices through reduced competition. Strawberries are such a minor product in the economies of both Australia and New Zealand that neither Government is likely to be too concerned over the effects of increased trans • Tasman competition. Lamb and butter, on the other hand, are economically and politically significant; hence they have been excluded from the agreement—for the benefit of producers on one side of the Tasman and to the detriment of consumers on the other. Margarine, clothing, and motor-cars are in the same category. Is no politician on either side of the Tasman bold enough to stand up for the consumers against the producers’ pressure groups?