Onion imports from N.Z. worry Japan

Press, 2 August 1983, Page 3

Onion imports from N.Z. worry Japan

From BRUCE ROSCOE, in Tokyo A Japanese agricultural union, alarmed at the rising volume of onions New Zealand is exporting to Japan, has called for a series of conferences between both countries’ producers to put controls on the trade.

According to the “Nihon Nogyo Shimbun” (Japan Agriculture Newspaper), the union, Zenno, will hold the first conference in Japan between this month and October.

“Nogyo Shimbun” said the conferences would aim at “eliminating speculative trading” by New Zealand exporters whose onion shipments to Japan had risen dramatically in the last five or six years. Since New Zealand producers were growing onions only for the Japanese mar-

ket, “Nogyo Shimbun” said, they had to accept whatever market conditons existed at the time of shipment, which last year had meant offloading onions cheaply. Between February and April this year, according to the newspaper, New Zealand shipped 27,600 tonnes of onions, or nearly 75 per cent of the total of 37,800 tonnes imported in that period. Controls on imports were needed because improved strains and sophisticated cool storage facilities were prolonging the domestic season for onions grown on the northern island of Hokkaido. The second conference would be held between December and January in New Zealand, and the third in Japan between March and April, 1984.