Fruit marketing ‘grossly inefficient’

Press, 4 May 1988, Page 5

Fruit marketing ‘grossly inefficient’

By

SARONA IOSEFA

The Government was sanctioning gross inefficiencies by not deregulating apple and pear marketing in New Zealand, said the spokesman for a campaign for deregulation, Mr David Boyle.

The Campaign for Cheaper Apple and Pear Prices is funded by groups from every facet of the food retailing industry which wants the Apple and Pear Board eliminated as the middleman. Pamphlets issued by the campaign said that growers were lucky to receive 35c a kilogram of apples, yet the retailer was paying more than 100 per cent more at $l.lB a kilogram and selling to consumers at $l.BB, with GST, a kilogram. “The New Zealand consumer is paying inflated prices for apples relative to the low cost of production. Between the grower and retailer there is a difference of 83c, and we want to know where this is going to,” Mr Boyle said. He said the board claimed the, 83c a kilogram was used “to smooth the flow of apples by providing variety crops throughout all seasons, and to keep prices reasonably close from district to district. “I think the retail trade can do this at a cheaper price and more efficiently,” he said. The Apple and Pear Board had shown gross inefficiencies in its export dealings by sending the wrong variety of apples to Europe. Apple varieties such as Red Delicious were being put on to the European market when the board knew European growers were growing this variety already. “Europe is refusing the apples because they’re sending them the wrong ones, yet the European market is screaming for Royal Gala, Gala, Braeburn and Fuji varieties, the supply of which our growers can’t meet,” Mr Boyle said.

The board should have been aware that Red Delicious was being grown in Europe, and should have advised orchardists to grow other varieties, he said.

According to Mr Boyle,

apples which had been destined for the European market were being juiced or “dumped” on to the domestic market which did not want them. By cutting out the Apple and Pear Board, retailers could offer growers 75c to 80c a kilogram, and sell to the consumer for $l.OB a kilogram before GST, said Mr Boyle. The Canterbury regional manager for the Apple and Pear Board, Mr Perry Trevella, said Mr Boyle should stick to re-. tailing because he knew nothing about export marketing. “It’s our job to keep tabs on the export market and to report back changes to the growers and that is what we are doing,” Mr Trevella said. Developing varieties of apples took five years and more from the time the “rod” (apple tree) went into the ground till it had been tested and ready for marketing. Mr Trevella said about four years ago the board said that there was a danger of overburdening the export market with certain varieties of apples, and new varieties were started soon after. These were still in the developing stages and it would take time before they would be released on to the market. “There has been massive spending which has gone into certain projects, and we do have a lead on the rest of the world, but it takes time,” Mr Trevella said. The prices quoted by the campaign were very simplistic because prices varied according to varieties, he said. “The industry is labourintensive, and cool storage and transportation are also being paid for. "The bottom line is that, if the grower, who the board was set up for, united to kick us out we would have been history. But they still want us, so we’re still here,” Mr Trevella said.