FRUIT FOR EXPORT

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 81, 29 December 1928, Page 6

FRUIT FOR EXPORT

ORDER FROM GERMAN FIRM MINISTER ADVOCATES PROPOSAL REJECTED BY CONTROL BOARD The various export control boards of New Zealand may look forward to a Whittling of their powers at the hands of the Ward Government if what has happened recently in connection with the Fruit Control Board can be accepted as a criterion of the new Administration’s future policy. All sorts of rumours have been current during the past week or so . concerning the refusal of the Fruit Control Board to grant the necessary authority for the f.o.b. supply of New Zealand apples to a German firm. Special, inquiries, concluded by the “Dominion” yesterday, show that shortly after the Hon. G. W. Forbes assumed the portfolio of Agriculture, he was advised by a certain firm of Wellington merchants that a well-known Hamburg firm, Messrs. Lutten and Co., desired to purchase, at a price, 30,000 cases of New Zealand apples. Under the terms of the Fruit Control Act, however, fruit cannot be exported from New Zealand without the agreement of the Control Board. The new Minister of Agriculture was accordingly requested to ask the board to give the necessary authority for the purchase and subsequent export. It is understood that the Hon. G. W. Forbes, who at that time had been less than a fortnight in office, wrote to the board indicating that in his opinion the necssary authority should be granted. At the time the alleged offer for the f.o.b. purchase was received, however, the Fruit Control Board (the “Dominion’s” inquiries further reveal) had already arranged for the consignment of 100,000 cases of the same quality fruit to Rotterdam for distribution in the various Northern European markets. including Hamburg. In those markets the apples would be sold at current market rates. As is well known, the Control Board is responsible for the distribution of the fruit for export of, roughly, 600 growers, and it is clear that had it agreed to the proposition of the Minister of Agriculture only a handful of growers could have participated in the sale, in view of its size. A special meeting of the board was held to consider the. proposal of. the Minister, and after full consideration the board, it is gathered, decided that while a few growers might benefit, it was unable in the interests of growers as a whole to agree to the f.o.b. order. Another factor understood to have influenced the ‘board was the knowledge that the acceptance of the order could easily result in the fruit being sold in Hamburg at prices that might be detrimental to the other New Zealand fruit sent on consignment. The decision of the board has been conveyed to the Government, from whom, through the Minister of Agriculture, the next move, if any, must come.

Publication of the foregoing information will no doubt raise in the minds of Dominion growers generally grave concern as to what future lies ahead of their board. “Is this not the thin end of the wedge'and a preliminary to the repeal of the compulsory clauses of the Act?” is the question many will doubtless ask. The answer can be given only by the Hon. G. IV. Forbes, who at present is in the South Island.