Rise for pea growers

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 3

Rise for pea growers

(N.Z. Press Association) HASTINGS, March 26. Pea growers in Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay will receive higher prices from processors next season. J. Wattie Canneries will pay an additional 10 per cent but will discontinue the per cent bonus paid at the end of the season.

This gives an effective 7) per cent increase payable in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne. In Canterbury, where the first season has just ended and the bonus has not applied, the increase will be a flat 74 per cent. Unilever (N.Z.), Ltd, would also pay an additional 74 per cent, said the technical director in Hastings (Mr M. Grainer). Sir Jarnes Wattie said today that it was early yet to assess what acreage would be

required in peas next season, but he thought it would be at least equal to the season just ended. Pea growers would be dissatisfied with the increased price, said Mr D. W. Goble, national secretary of. the Vegetable and Produce Growers’ Federation. “Research has shown that growers need an extra 1c per lb to put them on to the same level for net return

compared with 1962, but the increase granted by the processors represents only .2 of a cent,” Mr Goble said. “Since last season, costs to growers have risen 4 per cent in Hawke’s Bay, 7 per cent in South Canterbury, and 5.7 per cent in Canterbury. The processors’. response is a long way short of what growers need, and we feel that nothing we have asked for is excessive,”, he said.