ISLAND ORANGES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 35, 5 November 1928, Page 13

ISLAND ORANGES

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Permit me to thank Market Gardeners, Ltd., for their reply to my letter, re the above subject. I should, however, like to make plain that I did not state, or infer, that his company were charging country buyers 225. per case for Island oranges. I asked “wliy, if 17s. was the market rate, county buyers were invoiced at 225., and who pocketed the.additional ss. per case.” This question still remains unanswered. Five shillings, plus ten per eent. commission on 175., plus handling charges, plus cartages, seems a high margin to make on a single case of oranges. It amounts to 40-50 per cent., and, in my opinion, unjustifiably increases the price of oranges to the public. It means the price is automatically doubled, in fact. If country buyers are called upon to meet this 40-50 per cent increased burden on every line of fruit purchased from the fruit markets, then someone is benefiting at the expense of both 'producers and the public. . . No one will deny the speculators right to make money, but the margins mentioned seem out of all proportion to the service rendered. Fruit, merchants have the power to fix country’prices, and by reducing the retail margins, have succeeded in keeping hundreds of shopkeepers working from early morning fill 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. No’ trade in this country is called upon to work the hours of a fruiterer to’ “earn a crust.” Gould not, the Cook Island producers improve the existing position: by introducing ■ their own marketing organisation; both city and country? I present this thought to them for their consideration. To assist the public to better understand the position, will Market Gardeners’, be good enough to state “Exactly how much of the 17s. realised at the sale for Island oranges eventually finds its way to the producers?” I have proved, with commission and profits 40-50 per cent, is added to the market price, to which railage and cartage must be added. —I am, etc., ■ “ELECTOR.” ': Palmerston North, November 1.